THE 


HISTORY 


OF    THE 


UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA. 


BY  RICHARD  HILDRETH. 


VOL.  L 


NEW  YORK: 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS, 

339    &    331    PEAR  I.    STREET, 
FBANKLIN     SQXTARK. 

1854. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  forty-eight,  by 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Southern  District 
of  New  York. 


\\513 

v.  I 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


OF  centennial  sermons  and  Fourth-of-July  ora- 
tions, whether  professedly  such  or  in  the  guise  of 
history,  there  are  more  than  enough.  It  is  due 
to  our  fathers  and  ourselves,  it  is  due  to  truth  and 
philosophy,  to  present  for  once,  on  the  historic 
stage,  the  founders  of  our  American  nation  un- 
hedaubed  with  patriotic  rouge,  wrapped  up  in  no 
fine-spun  cloaks  of  excuses  and  apology,  without 
stilts,  "buskins,  tinsel,  or  bedizzenment,  in  their 
own  proper  persons,  often  rude,  hard,  narrow,  super* 
stitious,  and  mistaken,  hut  always  earnest,  down- 
right, manly,  and  sincere.  The  result  of  their  la- 
bors is  eulogy  enough ;  their  best  apology  is  to  tell 
their  story  exactly  as  it  was. 

We  have  accordingly,  in  this  book,  an  attempt 
to  set  forth  the  personages  of  our  colonial  and  rev- 
olutionary history,  such  as  they  really  were  in 
their  own  day  and  generation,  living  and  breath- 
ing men,  their  faults  as  well  as  their  virtues,  their 
weaknesses  as  well  as  their  strength — for  to  know 
men,  we  must  know  them  in  both  aspects ;  an  en- 
deavor to  trace  our  institutions,  religious,  social, 
and  political,  from  their  embryo  state;  to  show, 
in  fine,  from  what  beginnings,  by  what  influen- 


Vlll 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


ces,  and  through  what  changes  the  United  States 
of  America  are  what  they  are. 

For  facts,  recourse  has  been  had  to  the  original 
authorities,  particularly  laws,  state  papers,  public 
documents,  and  official  records,  printed  and  man- 
uscript. Free  use  has  also  been  made  of  the  nu- 
merous valuable  collections  of  letters  and  memoirs 
relating  especially  to  the  Revolution,  published 
within  the  last  twenty-five  years.  It  has  not  been 
thought  necessary  to  distract  the  reader's  atten- 
tion, and  to  increase  the  size  and  cost  of  the  book, 
by  a  parade  of  references ;  but,  for  the  benefit  of 
those  curious  in  such  matters,  and  especially  of 
such  young  students  as  may  wish  to  investigate  our 
history  in  its  original  sources,  a  list  of  the  printed 
books  chiefly  used  is  placed  at  the  end  of  the  third 
volume.  In  all  cases  of  citations  from  statutes, 
which  are  very  numerous,  public  records,  letters, 
and  generally  from  memoirs  and  histories,  the  dates 
in  the  margin  will  furnish  a  guide  to  those  who 
may  desire  to  verify  the  quotations. 

To  combine  a  mass  of  materials,  generally  dry, 
sometimes  defective,  and  sometimes  contradictory, 
embracing  a  multiplicity  of  petty  details  concern- 
ing numerous  independent  communities,  into  an 
harmonious,  well-proportioned  whole,  all  the  parts 
of  which  shall  illustrate  each  other,  and,  preserv- 
ing the  necessary  brevity,  to  convey  to  the  reader 
a  distinct  idea  of  the  persons,  facts,  and  bearings 
of  our  history,  in  narrative  somewhat  picturesque 
and  life-like,  is  a  task  so  difficult,  that  in  the  pres- 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


ix 


ent  defective  state  of  our  historical  literature  even 
a  distant  approach  to  it  can  hardly  fail  to  be  ac- 
ceptable. 

No  other  work  on  American  history,  except  mere 
^ompends  and  abridgments,  embraces  the  same 
extent  of  time ;  none  comprehends  the  same  cir- 
cuit of  inquiry,  or  has  any  thing  like  the  same 
plan  and  objects.  Nowhere  else  can  be  found  in 
the  same  distinct  completeness  the  curious  and 
instructive  story  of  New  England  theocracy,  the 
financial,  economical,  and  political  history  of  the 
colonies  and  the  Revolution,  the  origin  and  shap- 
ing  of  our  existing  laws  and  institutions,  state  and 
national,  the  progressive,  social,  and  intellectual 
development  of  our  people. 

The  foundation  thus  laid,  it  is  intended-  in  two 
more  volumes  to  sketch  the  story  even  to,  the  pres- 
ent times. 

Boston,  Jan.  1,  1849. 

A  very  careful  revision  of  th®se  three  volumes 
has  resulted  in  numerous  corrections,  as  well  as  to 
facts  as  phraseology.  Some*  new  facts  have  also 
been  added,  derived  chiefly  from  recently-pub- 
lished works,  the  titles-  of  which  have  been  sub- 
joined to  the  list  of  authorities.  Brodhead's  His- 
tory of  New  York,  aiasd  Bancroft's  new  volumes — 
fruits,  at  least  in  past,,  of  laborious  and  protracted 
researches  on  the  part  of  their  accomplished  au- 
thors among  European  colonial  records — deserve, 
to  be  specially  mentioned. 


x  ADVERTISEMENT, 

These  three  volumes,  thus  revised,  present,  I  be- 
lieve, a  pretty  correct  outline,  so  far  as  existing  ma- 
terials admit,  of  the  history  of  British  America  for  a 
period  of  nearly  three  centuries,  down  to  the  organ- 
ization of  the  political  system  of  the  United  States 
on  its  existing  hasis  of  the  Federal  Constitution. 
Through  the  first  following  generation,  and  down 
to  the  year  1821,  the  narrative  has  been  continued 
in  a  Second  Series  of  three  volumes,  already  pub- 
lished. 

The  undress  portraits  I  have  presented  of  our 
colonial  progenitors,  though  made  up  chiefly  of 
traits  delineated  by  themselves ;  my  presumption 
in  bursting  the  thin,  shining  bubble  so  assiduously 
blown  up  by  so  many  windy  mouths,  of  a  colonial 
golden  age  of  fabulous  purity  and  virtue,  have 
given  very  serious  offense,  especially  in  New  En- 
gland, region  of  set  formality  and  hereditary  gri- 
mace, where  a  careful  editorial  toning  down,  to 
prepare  them  for  being  printed,  of  the  letters  of 
even  so  cautious  a  person  as  Washington,  has 
been  thought  to  be  demanded  alike  by  decorum 
toward  him,  and  by  propriety  toward  the  public. 

Yet  my  reception,  on  the  part  of  less  critical 
readers,  as  well  in  New  England  as  beyond  it,  has 
been  such  as  to  afford  me  very  gratifying  proof,  in 
the  face  of  croaking  prophecies  of  feeble-minded 
or  faint-hearted  friends,  that,  unsustained  by  any 
party,  .sect,  or  class  interest ;  independent  of  every 
body;  worshiping  neither  the  setting,  the  mid- 
4  nor  the  rising  .sun ;  too  proud  to  bask  in  the 


ADVERTISEMENT.  xi 

sunshine  of  national  vanity,  however  large  and 
respectable  the  company  to  be  found  there ;  too 
much  an  admirer  of  artistic  unity,  as  well  as  too 
sturdy  a  patriot,  to  overlay  and  belittle  our  simple 
annals  by  any  gaudy  fringes  borrowed  from  the 
history  of  Europe  ;  content  to  let  our  own  perform- 
ers act  out  our  own  drama,  on  our  own  stage,  un- 
eclipsed  by  stars  dragged  in  from  abroad ;  detest- 
ing all  kinds  of  cant,  especially  the  so  fashionable 
twin  cants  of  a  spasmodic,  wordy  rhetoric  and  a 
transcendental  philosophy ;  despising  all  fripperies 
and  clap-traps ;  relating  plain  facts  in  plain  En- 
glish ;  with  no  interest  but  justice,  and  no  aim 
but  truth — an  American,  writing  for  Americans, 
may  hope  to  find  among  his  countrymen,  especial- 
ly the  younger  part  of  them  (little  credit  as  we 
have  abroad  for  philosophical  introspection  or  sim- 
plicity of  taste),  sympathizing  and  appreciating 
readers. 

Indeed,  I  am  encouraged  to  entertain  the  idea 
of  bringing  down  my  narrative  of  American  affairs, 
in  a  Third  Series  of  two  additional  volumes,  to 
the  end  of  the  presidential  term  which  has  just 
closed — no  doubt,  a  difficult  and  delicate  under- 
taking. Yet  the  extreme  publicity  of  all  our  polit- 
ical  transactions,  and  the  speedy  disclosure  among 
us  of  all  political  secrets,  afford  many  facilities  not 
elsewhere  to  be  had  for  the  writing  of  cotempo- 
rary  history ;  while,  ]>y  peeping  aloof  from  all  per- 
sonal  party  strifes,  and  l}y  rising  above  the  mere 
temporary  interests  of  the  moment,  ^  position  may 


Xii  ADVERTISEMENT. 

be  reached  sufficiently  elevated  for  obtaining  a 
pretty  correct  idea  of  the  real  proportions  and  act- 
ual relations  of  events,  and,  by  retrospect  over  the 
recent  past,  facilitating  something  of  forecast  as 
to  the  more  immediate  future. 

Boston,  March  6,  1853. 


CONTENTS  OP  THE  FIRST  VOLUME. 


[A  complete  Analytical  lodes  will  be  found  at  the  end  of  the  third  volume.) 


CHAPTER  I. 
VOYAGES   OF    DISCOVERY.       TERRITORIAL   CLAIMS. 

Pae. 

The  West  Indies ;  Name  of  America 33 

Alleged  Icelandic  Discovery  ;  English  Expedition 34 

State  of  England ;  John  Cabot ;  his  Patent 34 

Discovery  of  North  America  ! 35 

Second  Patent ;  Voyage  of  Sebastian  Cabot 35 

Cotemporaneous  Discovery  by  Vasco  de  Gama 36 

Fishery  of  Newfoundland 37 

Title  by  Discovery ;  English  Claim  to  North  America ....  37 

Portuguese  Voyages ;  Discovery  of  Brazil 38 

Cape  Breton ;  Discoveries  by  French  Fishermen 39 

Spanish  Settlements  in  the  West  Indies 39 

Florida;  Chicora;  Gulf  of  Mexico 39 

Search  for  a  Northwest  Passage  to  India 41 

Voyage  of  Magellan ;  the  Globe  circumnavigated 42 

Voyage  of  Verrazzani ;  Italian  Navigators 42 

Voyage  of  Gomez  ;  Slavery  of  Indians 43 

Expedition  of  Narvaez  to  Florida 44 

Cartier  explores  the  St.  Lawrence 44 

First  English  Attempt  at  Settlement  in  America 46 

Robertval's  Colony  on  the  St.  Lawrence 46 

French  Claim  to  North  America 46 

De  Soto's  Expedition  through  the  present  Southern  States.  47 

Coronado's  Expedition  up  the  Gila  and  Del  Norte 48 

Upper  California ;  Decline  of  Spanish  Enterprise 48 

Spanish  Claim  to  North  America . 49 


Xiv  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  II. 

ASPECT    AND   ABORIGINAL    INHABITANTS    OF   NORTH 

AMERICA. 

P«S* 

Spanish  and  Portuguese  Settlements  in  America 50 

Newfoundland  Fishery ;  Coast  and  Climate  of  North  America  5 1 

Aboriginal  Inhabitants ;  their  Tribes  and  Confederacies.  . .  51 

Languages ;  Records  and  Traditions 52 

Political  System ;  Chiefs ;  Prophets 54 

Apparent  Forms  of  Government ;  Hereditary  Descent  ....  56 

Ideas  of  Property ;  Industry ;  Trade 56 

Administration  of  Justice ;  Right  of  private  Vengeance ....  57 

Wars ;  System  of  Tactics 58 

Treatment  of  Enemies ;  Adoption 59 

Hunting  and  Fishing ;  Wood-craft ;  Migratory  Habits. ...  60 

Forests  and  Prairies ;  Quadrupeds;  Fowl ;  Fish 60 

Pastoral  Life  unknown ;  Agriculture  . 61 

Servile  Condition  of  Women ;  Manners 62 

Weapons  and  Utensils  ;  Canoes  ;  Dress  and  Ornaments.  . .  63 

W'ant  of  Foresight ;  gluttonous  Feasts ;  Tobacco 64 

Dances ;  Festivals ;  Ceremonies ;  Games 65 

Scanty  Population ;  Diseases 65 

Probable  Numbers 65 

Traces  of  a  former  more  numerous  Population 66 

General  Similarity  North  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 67 

Aboriginal  Inhabitants  of  the  rest  of  America 68 

Maltreatment  by  the  early  Discoverers 69 

Traffic  on  the  North  American  Coast 70 

.  ...  -. ;..,*..•..:.  f«l*Hi8(pEa 

|$-  •  ..  , ../,'.  „ . ....  .5*.;  oj 

CHAPTER  III. 

CAROLINA.     COLONY  OF  ST.  AUGUSTINE.     NEW  MEXICO. 
'VIRGINIA.     ACADIE.     NEW  FRANCE.     NEW  NETHER- 
LAND. 

Protestant  Reformation;  Huguenots 71 

Flench  Colony  in  Florida  ;  Fort  Carolina 71 

Second  Colony ;  Visit  of  Hawkins 72 

Enterprise  of  Menendez ;  St.  Augustine  founded 73 


CONTENTS.  xv 

P«» 

Destruction  of  the  French  Colony 74 

Revenge  of  De  Gourges ;  slow  Progress  of  St.  Augustine  . .  75 

New  Mexico  discovered  and  occupied 76 

English  Maritime  Adventure  ;  Search  for  a  Northeast  Pas- 
sage    77 

Renewed  Search  for  a  Northwest  Passage  ;  Frobisher's  Voy- 
ages    77 

Hostilities  between  Spain  and  England;  Privateering 78 

Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert ;  his  Patent  and  first  Voyage 78 

Drake's  Voyage  round  the  World  ;  New  Albion 79 

Gilbert's  second  Voyage  ;  Claim  to  Newfoundland 80 

Raleigh's  Patent;  Voyage  of  Amidas  and  Barlow 80 

Virginia  ;  Colony  of  Roanoke M 81 

Lane's  Explorations  ;  Visit  of  Drake 83 

Roanoke  deserted  ;  Arrival  of  Grenville 85 

City  of  Raleigh  ;  Spanish  Armada 85 

Raleigh  assigns  his  Patent ;  vain  Search  for  the  Colonists .  87 

Hakluyt ;  De  Bry ;  Tobacco  ;  the  Potato 87 

French  Fur  Trade ;  De  la  Roche's  Commission 89 

Chauvin  ;  De  Chatte  ;  Pontgrave 90 

Voyages  of  Gosnold  and  Pring  ;  Cape  Cod  ;  Penobscot  Bay  90 

Voyage  of  Pontgrave  and  Champlain  to  the  St.  Lawrence  .  91 

Acadie ;  Bay  of  Fundy ;  St.  Croix ;  Explorations 92 

Voyage  of  Wey mouth  ;  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges 93 

Charter  of  Virginia 94 

Instructions  for  the  Government  of  Virginia 96 

Port  Royal ;  Quebec ;  Lake  Champlain  ;  New  France  ...  96 

Voyages  of  Hudson 97 

New  Netherland ;  conflicting  Territorial  Claims 98 

CHAPTER  IV. 
SETTLEMENT    OF   VIRGINIA. 

London  Virginia  Company  ;  first  Colony 99 

Voyage  and  Arrival ;  Jamestown 100 

Government  organized ;  Explorations;  Indians 101 

Distress  of  the  Colony ;  Energy  of  Smith 102 

His  Captivity  and  Release ;  new  Colonists 103 


xvi  CONTENTS. 

p«gt 

Imaginary  Gold  ;  first  Remittance 105 

Smith  explores  the  Chesapeake;  becomes  President 106 

More  Colonists;  Company's  angry  Letter 106 

Newport's  Explorations;  Smith's  Answer  to  the  Company.  107 

Second  Charter  of  Virginia 108 

Fourth  Arrival  of  Colonists  ;  Departure  of  Smith 109 

Starving  Time  ;  Arrival  of  Lord  De  la  War 110 

Dale's  Administration  ;  Laws  ;  Assignment  of  Lands 112 

Bad  Repute  of  Virginia  ;  Supplementary  Charter 113 

Marriage  of  Pocahontas  ;  Relations  with  the  Indians 113 

Argall's  Expedition  to  Acadie  and  Hudson  River 114 

Lands;  Tenants;  Salaries;  Corn  arid  Tobacco 115 

Visit  of  Pocahontas  to  England 116 

Argall's  Administration  ;  Yeardley  Governor 117 

Disputes  in  the  Company ;  Sandys  Treasurer 118 

First  Colonial  Assembly 118 

Immigrants  ;  Women  ;  Convicts ;  Negro  Slaves 119 

Slavery  in  Europe  and  America 119 

Southampton  Treasurer;  Free  Trade;  Explorations 121 

College  ;  Iron  Works  ;  new  Staples  attempted 121 

Parliamentary  Complaints;  Orders  in  Council 122 

Ordinance  establishing  the  Colonial  Assembly 123 

Parish  Endowments ;  Salaries 123 

Instruction  to  Wyatt;  Indian  Massacre  and  War 124 

Investigation  ordered  into  the  Company's  Affairs 126 

First  extant  Acts  of  Assembly 126 

Part  taken  by  the  Assembly  in  the  pending  Controversy.  . .  128 

Company's  Charter  forfeited  ;  Royal  Instructions 129 

Wyatt's  Report  on  the  Condition  of  the  Colony  ;  Tobacco.  130 

Potts  Governor;  his  Trial  for  Cattle-stealing 131 

Fort  at  Point  Comfort;  Salt  Work 131 

Revisal  of  the  Laws  ;  Middle  Plantation 132 

Division  into  Counties 135 

Dela\v  ire  Bay  and  River  ;  Dutch  Traders 135 


CONTENTS.  xvij 

CHAPTER  V. 
SETTLEMENT    OF   NEW   NETHERLAND. 

Pag* 

Dutch  Republic  ;  Trade  to  Hudson  River 136 

Visit  of  Argall ;  English  Claim 136 

Dutch  Explorations  ;  New  Netherland 137 

Fort  up  the  Hudson ;  Iroquois  or  Five  Nations 138 

Indians  on  the  Lower  Hudson;  Manhattan 138 

The  Delaware  explored;  proposed  English  Colonists 139 

New  Claims  by  the  English ;  Dutch  West  India  Company  139 

Forts  Nassau  and  Orange  ;  Colony  of  Walloons 140 

Form  of  Administration ;  Fur  Trade;  Fort  Amsterdam.  . .  141 

Intercourse  with  New  Plymouth 141 

Scheme  for  Colonizing  New  Netherland ;  Patroons 142 

Zwanandal ;  Pavonia ;  Rensselaerswyck  . 143 

Disputes  with  the  Patroons;  English  Claims 144 

Colony  of  Zwanandal  destroyed;  De  Vries 144 

Van  Twiller  Director ;  English  Competition  on  the  Hudson  145 

Fort  on  the  Connecticut;  Collision  with  Plymouth 145 

The  Delaware  reoccupied ;  Progress  of  New  Amsterdam  . .  147 

Disputes  with  the  Patroons  ;  Purchase  of  Zwanandal 147 

Intrusions  from  Massachusetts  on  the  Connecticut 147 

New  Albion 148 

Village  of  Flatlands ;  Van  Twiller  recalled 148 

Kieft  Director ;  Colony  of  Rensselaerswyck 149 

CHAPTER  VI. 
NEW  ENGLAND.      COLONY  OF  NEW  PLYMOUTH.      LACONIA. 

Company  for  North  Virginia 150 

Preliminary  Voyages ;  Colony  at  Sagadahoc 150 

Attempted  Settlement  in  Newfoundland;  Monhiggon 151 

Voyages  of  Smith  and  Hunt ;  Name  of  New  England  ....  151 

Zeal  of  Smith ;  Great  Patent  of  New  England 152 

Church  of  England;  the  Puritans 153 

The  Brownists ;  Court  of  High  Commission 154 

Brownist  Emigrations  to  Holland 155 

Proposed  Emigration  to  America 155 

I.  B 


CONTENTS. 


Arrangement  with  the  Virginia  Company  ;  Joint  Stock  ...  156 

Embarkation  and  Voyage  ;  Arrival  at  Cape  Cod  .........  157 

Compact  of  Government  ;  Magistrates  chosen  ...........  158 

Explorations;  Dormer's  recent  Voyages  ................  159 

New  Plymouth  founded  ;  Military  Organization  ..........  160 

Intercourse  with  Indians  ;  the  Pocanokets  ..............  161 

Recent  Mortality  among  the  Indians  ..................  161 

Mortality  among  the  Colonists  ;  Visit  to  Massasoit  .......  162 

Collision  with  the  Indians;  Submission  of  nine  Sachems.  .  .  162 

Exploration  of  Massachusetts  Bay  ....................  163 

Arrival  of  the  Fortune;  first  Remittance  ...............  163 

The  Narragansets  ;  Fortification  of  New  Plymouth  .......  164 

Scarcity  of  Provisions  ;  Fort  and  Church  ...............  165 

Weston's  Plantation  at  Wissagusset  ...................  165 

Indian  Plot;  Expedition  and  Exploits  of  Standish  ........  166 

New  England  Patent  questioned  ......................  167 

West  Admiral  of  New  England  ......................  168 

Gorges  and  Mason;  Mariana  ;  Laconia  ................  168 

Grant  of  Nova  Scotia  ...............................  169 

Lieutenant  General  and  Ecclesiastical  Commissary  .......  169 

Progress  of  New  Plymouth  ;  Religious  Disputes  .........  170 

New  Plymouth  in  its  fifth  Year  ;  the  Forefathers  ........  171 

Affairs  of  the  Council  for  New  England  ................  172 

Baronets  of  Nova  Scotia  ............................  173 

Close  of  the  Plymouth  Joint  Stock  ;  Trade  of  New  Plymouth  173 

Settlements  on  the  Coast  ;  Morton  of  Merry  Mount  ......  174 

Patent  for  New  Plymouth  ;  Government  and  Laws  ......  175 

Church  of  New  Plymouth  ...........................  175 

CHAPTER  VII. 

COLONY    OF    MASSACHUSETTS    BAY.       NEW   HAMPSHIRE. 
LIGONIA.       PEMAQUID. 

Settlement  at  Cape  Anne  ;  Massachusetts  Patent  ........  176 

London  Partners;  Endicott  sent  to  Massachusetts  ........  178 

Old  Planters;  Indians  ..............................  178 

Lincolnshire  Associates;  Royal  Charter  .....  .  ..........  179 

Company  organized  ;  London's  Plantation  ..............  180 


CONTENTS. 


Emigrants  sent  out  ;  State  of  the  Settlement.  .  ,t.  ........  181 

Salem  Church  ;  Proceedings  against  the  Brownes  ........  182 

Plan  for  transferring  the  Charter  ................  .....  183 

Winthrop's  Emigration  ;  Parting  Address  ..............  184 

Passage  and  Arrival  ;  Towns  founded  ..................  185 

Township  Organization;  first  General  Court  ............  186 

Churches  organized  ;  Military  Exercises  ......  ..........  187 

Sickness  and  Discouragements  ;  faint  Hearts  ............  187 

Severe  Winter;  Roger  Williams;  Dudley's  Letter  .......  188 

Second  General  Court  ;  Theocracy  established  ...........  189 

Ecclesiastical  System  ;  Church  and  State  ..............  190 

Distinction  of  Ranks;  austere  System  of  Manners  ........  192 

Severe  Treatment  of  old  Planters  ;  Eliot  and  the  younger 

Winthrop  ...........  ...........................  193 

Complaints  in  England  against  the  Colony  ..............  194 

Third  General  Court  ;  Restrictions  on  the  Magistrates.  ...  195 

New  Comers  ;  Regulation  of  Wages  and  Prices  ..........  196 

Sumptuary  Laws  ;  Progress  of  Boston  .................  197 

Small-pox  among  the  Indians  ........................  197 

The  Freemen  reclaim  their  chartered  Rights  ............  197 

Cotton's  Election  Sermon;  Dudley  Governor  ............  199 

Moderation  of  the  Freemen  ;  Winthrop's  Accounts  .......  199 

Progress  of  Massachusetts  ...........................  200 

New  Hampshire  ;  Ligonia  ;  Pemaquid  .................  200 

Conquest  and  Restoration  of  Acadie  and  Canada  .........  202 

French  Collision  with  New  Plymouth  .................  202 

Plymouth  Trading  House  on  the  Connecticut  ...........  203 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
SETTLEMENT    OF   MARYLAND.       PROGRESS    OF   VIRGINIA. 

Persecution  of  the  English  Catholics  ...................  204 

Sir  George  Calvert  ;  his  Colony  in  Newfoundland  ........  205 

Created  Lord  Baltimore  ;  his  Visits  to  America  ..........  205 

Charter  of  Maryland  ...............................  206 

Opposition  of  Clayborne  .............................  208 

Settlement  at  St.  Mary's  ............................  209 

Trading  Voyage  to  Massachusetts  .........  .  .........  209 


xx  CONTENTS. 

pas- 
Collision  with  Clayborne 209 

Discontents  in  Virginia ;  Governor  Harvey 210 

Land  Grants  in  Maryland 210 

First  and  second  Assemblies 211 

Third  Assembly ;  proposed  Penal  Code 211 

Laws  actually  enacted ;  Religious  Toleration 213 

Economical  Legislation  in  Virginia;  first  Stop  Law 214 

CHAPTER  IX. 

PROGRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS.  CONNECTICUT.  PROV- 
IDENCE. RHODE  ISLAND.  NEW  HAVEN.  NEW  SOM- 
ERSET. MAINE. 

First  Representative  Court  in  Massachusetts 216 

Influx  of  Immigrants 217 

Lords  Proprietors  of  Connecticut 217 

New  Complaints  against  Massachusetts 218 

Royal  Colonial  Commission 219 

Alarm  in  Massachusetts;  Measures  for  Defense 219 

Conflicting  Claims  of  the  Magistrates  and  Deputies 220 

Censure  of  Stoughton 221 

Roger  Williams ;  the  Cross  in  the  Colors 221 

Further  Measures  of  Defense  ;  Oath  of  Fidelity 222 

Williams's  Doctrine  of  Soul-liberty 223 

Haynes  Governor ;  first  Caucus 224 

Censure  of  Endicott 224 

New  Townships  ;  Law  for  their  Regulation 225 

New  England  Patent ;  Partition  of  New  England 225 

Mason's  Quo  Warranto ;  Winslow's  Imprisonment 226 

The  Plymouth  Traders  expelled  from  the  Penobscot 227 

Williams  and  the  Salem  Church 227 

Banishment  of  Williams 228 

Migration  to  Connecticut ;  Fort  Saybrook 229 

Severe  Winter;  Sufferings  of  the  Emigrants 230 

Flight  of  Williams  ;  Providence  founded 230 

Blackstone's  Settlement  on  the  Pawtucket 231 

Renewed  Migration  to  the  Connecticut 232 

Political  System  of  Massachusetts 233 


CONTENTS.  xxi 

P««e 

Counselors  for  Life 233 

Vane  Governor ;  new  Trouble  about  the  Colors 234 

Indians  of  New  England 236 

Origin  of  the  Pequod  War 237 

Endioott's  Expedition 240 

Alliance  with  the  Narragansets 240 

The  Connecticut  Towns  attacked 241 

Organization  of  the  Massachusetts  Militia 241 

The  Hutchinsonian  Controversy 242 

Inflamed  State  of  Party  Feeling 244 

Court  of  Elections ;  Triumph  of  the  Orthodox 245 

The  Hutchinsonians  beaten,  but  not  subdued 24& 

Law  against  new  Comers ;  Departure  of  Vane 247 

Preparations  for  attacking  the  Pequods 247 

Connecticut  Expedition 248 

Destruction  of  the  Pequod  Fort 249 

Progress  of  the  War  ;  Ruin  of  the  Pequods 251 

Indian  Policy  of  the  Colonists 252 

Synod  ;  severe  Proceedings  against  the  Hutchinsonians ....  253 

Aquiday  or  Rhode  Island  ;  Providence  Covenant 256 

Mrs.  Hutchinson  excommunicated  and  banished 257 

Compulsory  Support  of  Ministers  ;  Cotton's  Confession ....  258 

Wheelwright  and  Underbill  retire  to  New  Hampshire  ....  258 

New  Towns  in  Plymouth  Colony 260 

Colony  of  New  Haven 260 

Independence  of  Connecticut ;  Frame  of  Government 261 

Civil  and  Religious  System  of  New  Haven 262 

Latitudinarian  Church  suppressed 263 

Harvard  College  ;  Printing  Press 263 

The  Freemen  jealous  of  the  Magistrates 264 

New  Demands  from  England 264 

New  Somerset ;  Maine  . . . 265 

Meeting  of  the  Long  Parliament 267 

Progress  of  New  England  thus  far 267 


xxii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  X. 
NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT. 

Pag. 

Tender  Law ;  Currency  ;  Wampum 268 

Fishery  ;  Ship  Building  ;  Manufacture  of  Cloths 269 

Fundamental  Laws  demanded  ;  Cotton  and  Ward 270 

Annexation  of  New  Hampshire;  Underhill's  Penance 271 

Agents  sfcnt  to  England ;  Iron  Works 273 

Body  of  Liberties  or  Fundamentals 274 

Bellingham's  Administration  ;  his  singular  Marriage 279 

Winthrop  again  Governor ;  Migrations 280 

Winthrop's  Letter  to  Lord  Say  ;  Richard  Saltonstall 281 

Briscoe  fined  ;  New  England  Slave  Trade 282 

Alarm  of  Indian  Hostilities 283 

Invitations  to  the  Westminster  Assembly 284 

Applications  for  Ministers 284 

Favorable  Order  of  the  Commons 285 

Oath  of  Allegiance ;  B,ed  Cross 285 

Division  into  Counties ;  White  Hills  visited 285 

United  Colonies  of  New  England 285 

Plymouth ;  New  Haven  ;  Connecticut 286 

South  Boundary  of  Massachusetts 287 

Maine  ;  Aquiday  and  Providence 288 

Baptist  Church  at  Providence;  Williams  a  Seeker 289 

Baptist  Migrations  to  New  Netherland 289 

Massachusetts  Law  against  Baptists 290 

Baptist  Church  at  Newport 290 

Gorton's  Settlement  at  Shawomet 290 

Williams  goes  to  England  for  a  Charter 291 

Submission  of  the  Shawomet  Sachems  to  Massachusetts.  .  .  291 

Fate  of  Miantonimoh 292 

Arrest  of  the  Gortonists  ;  their  Trial  and  Sentence 293 

Gorton's  Visit  to  England ; >  , . . ;' 297 

Division  of  the  General  Court  into  two  Houses 297 

Affairs  of  Acadie ;  La  Tour's  Visit  to  Boston 299 

Assistance  afforded  him 301 

His  second  Visit  to  Boston ;  Arrival  of  Madame  La  Tour  .  302 

Third  Meeting  of  the  New  England  Commissioners 304 


CONTENTS.  xxiii 

r*e* 

New  Encroachments  attempted  on  the  Massachusetts  Mag- 
istrates   304 

Parliamentary  Commission  for  the  Colonies- 304 

Williams  in  England ;  Providence  Charter 305 

Civil  War  in  Boston  Harbor 306 

Affair  of  the  Hingham  Militia 307 

Winthrop  impeached  ;  his  Acquittal  and  Speech 307 

Petition  for  Toleration  ;  its  Rejection 310 

Council  for  Life  stripped  of  its  Power 311 

Military  Preparations  against  the  Narragansets 311 

Submission  of  Pessacus;  Indian  Vassals 312 

Ruin  and  Treachery  of  La  Tour 313 

Cromwell  the  Buccaneer 314 

Treaty  with  D'Aulney 315 

Summons  from  England  to  answer  Gorton's  Complaint. ...  316 

Debates  upon  it ;  Winslow  appointed  Agent 317 

Petition  of  non-Church  Members  for  Civil  Rights ;  Petition- 
ers fined 317 

Movement  in  Plymouth  for  the  same  Object 319 

Petition  to  Parliament ;  harsh  Treatment  of  the  Petitioners  319 

The  Petition  goes  forward;  Cotton,  Vassall,  Child 321 

Government  organized  under  the  Providence  Charter 322 

Gorton's  Return  ;  Dissensions  in  Rhode  Island 323 

Missionary  Labors  of  Eliot 324 

New  London  ;  Partition  of  the  Pequod  Country 325 

Saybrook  Impost;  111  Feeling  in  the  New  England  Union.  326 

Second  Synod ;  Influenza  ;  Cambridge  Platform 326 

Death  of  Winthrop  ;  Endicott  Governor 328 

Dudley  Governor  ;  his  Death  and  Epitaph 329 

Johnson's  Wonder-working  Providence 329 

Economical  Condition  of  New  England 330 

Progress  of  Boston;  Massachusetts  Militia 331 

Massachusetts  Officers  in  the  Parliamentary  Army 334 


XXJV  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

VIRGINIA   AND   MARYLAND   DURING    THE    ENGLISH    CIVIL 
WARS    AND    THE  COMMONWEALTH. 

E«ge 

Congratulation  at  the  Meeting  of  the  Long  Parliament  ...  335 

The  Company  applies  for  a  Restoration  of  its  Charter 335 

Second  Revision  of  the  Virginia  Code 3-36 

Number  of  Burgesses  and  Mode  of  Election 339 

Virginia  adheres  to  the  King 339 

Puritans  in  Virginia ;  Ministers  from  Massachusetts 339 

Indian  Massacre  and  War 340 

Fourth  and  fifth  Assemblies  of  Maryland  ;  System  of  Laws  341 

Defense  against  the  Indians 344 

Rebellion  and  Civil  War 345 

A  Protestant  Governor  appointed 346 

Proprietary  Draft  of  Laws ;  Toleration  Act 347 

Address  to  the  Proprietary 349 

Condition  of  Virginia 349 

Comparison  of  Virginia  and  New  England 352 

Disaffection  in  Virginia 352 

Puritan  Emigration  to  Maryland;  new  Counties 353 

Charles  II.  proclaimed  in  Virginia  and  Maryland  ........  353 

Davenant's  Commission  as  Governor  of  Maryland 354 

Ordinance  for  subduing  the  Royalist  Colonies 355 

Expeditions  against  Barbadoes  and  Virginia 355 

Terms  of  Capitulation;  Bennett  Governor  of  Virginia 356 

Proceedings  in  Maryland 357 

Navigation  Ordinances 358 

Governor  Stone  deposed;  Puritan  Governor  and  Assembly.  359 

Papists  and  Prelatists  disfranchised ;  Civil  War 359 

Appeal  to  Cromwell 361 

Rival  Governments  ;  final  Settlement 362 

Proprietary  Authority  and  Toleration  re-established 362 

Third  Revisal  of  the  Virginia  Laws 363 

The  Assembly  triumphs  over  Mathews 364 

Rules  of  Proceeding  for  the  Assembly 365 

Richard  Cromwell  acknowledged ;  Claims  of  the  Assembly  365 

Berkeley  chosen  Governor 366 


CONTENTS.  xxv 

9m 

Royal  Authority  recognized ;  State  House  to  be  built 366 

New  Disturbances  in  Maryland 367 

Final  re-establishment  of  the  Proprietary  Authority 367 


CHAPTER  XII. 
NEW   ENGLAND    DURING    THE    CQMMONWEALTH. 

Revised  Code  of  Massachusetts 368 

Laws  against  Blasphemy  and  Heresy 369 

Common  Schools 370 

End  of  the  Struggle  for  Rotation  in  Office 371 

Code  of  Connecticut ;  Slavery  of  Indians  and  Negroes 371 

Indian  Tribute  ;  Indian  Missions 373 

Claim  of  Massachusetts  to  the  Eastern  Coast 374 

Affairs  of  Maine;  re-establishment  of  the  Province  of  Ligonia  374 

Maine  annexed  to  Massachusetts 375 

Ligonia  annexed  to  Massachusetts 376 

Plymouth  Settlement  on  the  Kennebec ;  Pemaquid 376 

Diplomatic  Intercourse  with  Canada 376 

Schemes  of  Massachusetts  against  Providence  Plantations.  .  377 

Williams  and  Clarke  appointed  Agents  to  England 378 

Dissensions  in  the  Board  of  New  England  Commissioners.  .  379 

Clarke's  Visit  to  Lynn;  his  Arrest  and  Trial 379 

Punishment  of  Holmes 380 

Ministers  not  to  be  settled  without  leave 381 

Second  Church  of  Boston 381 

Clarke  and  Williams  in  England 382 

Saltonstall's  Letter  to  Cotton  and  Wilson;  their  Answer. .  382 

Williams' s  Remonstrance  to  Endicott , . 384 

Massachusetts  Coinage 384 

Reported  Dutch  and  Indian  Plot 385 

War  prevented  by  the  Opposition  of  Massachusetts 386 

The  Union  in  Danger 387 

Massachusetts  refuses  to  make  War  on  the  Niantics 388 

Cromwell  sends  an  Expedition  against  New  Netherland. . .  388 

It  proceeds  against  Acadie  ;  Gibbons  and  La  Tour 389 

War  against  the  Niantics 390 

Conquest  of  Jamaica;  Winslow,  Sedgwick,  and  Vassall.  . .  390 


xxvi  CONTENTS. 

p«g« 
Indian  Affairs  ;  Towns  required  to  have  Ministers 392 

Persecution  of  Baptists ;  Dunster  and  Chauncey 393 

Plymouth  Law  for  Ministerial  Support ;  Governors 393 

Governors  of  Connecticut 394 

Return  of  Williams ;  Affairs  of  Providence  Plantations  ...   394 

Reply  to  Vane's  Letter 395 

Reunion ;  Williams  President;  Non-resistance 396 

Submission  of  Coddington;  his  Reconciliation  with  Dyer  .  .   398 
Remonstrance  with  Massachusetts  ;  Williams  at  Boston  .  .   398 

Arrival  of  Quakers  in  New  England 399 

Execution  of  Anne  Hibbins  for  Witchcraft.  . ., 400 

Quakers  expelled  ;  Mary  Fisher ;  Gorton 400 

Doctrines  of  the  Quakers 401 

Anti-Quaker  Legislation  in  New  England 405 

Providence  Plantations  refuse  to  persecute 405 

Resistance  to  a  Ministerial  Tax 406 

Capital  Punishment  inflicted  on  Quakers 40> 

Law  against  Vagabond  Quakers 408 

Progress  of  the  Indian  Missions 409 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

NEW  SWEDEN.       PROGRESS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.  ITS 
CONQUEST    BY    THE    ENGLISH. 

New  Sweden  ;  Kieft's  Protests 413 

Charter  of  Privileges  to  Settlers  in  New  Netherland 414 

Immigrants;  Breukelen;  Progress  of  New  Amsterdam . ...  415 

Encroachments;  English  Settlers  in  New  Netherland  ....  416 

New  Haven  Colonists  expelled  from  the  Delaware 417 

War  with  the  Raritans 418 

War  with  the  Tappan  Indians;  the  Twelve  Men 41 9 

Massacre  at  Hackensack ;  Aggressions  on  Long  Island ....  420 

War  of  eleven  Tribes ;  temporary  Peace 422 

Correspondence  with  the  New  England  Commissioners ....  423 

Visit  and  Claims  of  Sir  Edmund  Plowden 423 

War  of  seven  Tribes 423 

The  Eight  Men ;  Distress  of  the  Colony 424 

Expeditions  ;  Murder  of  Patrick 425 


CONTENTS.  xxvii 

Page 

Expedition  against  the  Tappan  Indians 426 

The  Hemstede  Tribe  destroyed 426 

Great  Battle  of  Greenwich 426 

Bills  protested ;  Taxes  ;  Opposition  to  them 427 

Rensselaerswyck ;  Van  Cuyler  and  Van  der  Donck 428 

Rescue  of  Jesuits  from  the  Mohawks 429 

Staple  Right  of  Rensselaerswyck 430 

Settlements  at  Hempstead  and  Flushing ;  Peace 431 

Dilapidated  State  of  New  Netherland. 431 

Progress  of  New  Sweden ;  Printz  Governor 431 

Swedish  Posts  and  Settlements 432 

Claim  of  Recognition  by  the  Dutch  West  India  Company. .  433 

Swedish  Lutheran  Church 433 

Exclusion  of  New  Englanders  from  the  Delaware 434 

Collisions  of  the  Dutch  and  Swedes 434 

New  England  Encroachments  toward  the  Upper  Hudson. .  434 

Jnternal  Troubles  at  New  Amsterdam 435 

Appointment  of  Stuy  vesant ;  State  of  the  Province 435 

Melyn  and  Kieft ;  the  Nine  Men , 436 

Negotiations  and  Treaty  with  New  England 438 

Renewed  Disputes  ;  threatened  War 438 

Charter  of  New  Amsterdam  ;  Claims  of  the  Commonalty.  439 

Conquest  of  New  Sweden 440 

Indian  Ravages  ;  Ransom  of  Prisoners  ;  Esopus 441 

Proclamation  against  Conventicles 441 

Settlements  on  the  West  Shore  of  the  Delaware 442 

Relations  between  New  Netherland  and  Virginia 442 

New  Pretensions  on  the  Side  of  New  England 442 

The  Commonalty  consulted 443 

Province  of  New  York 443 

Expedition  from  England  against  New  Netherland 444 

Capitulation  ;  City  of  New  York  ;  Albany  ;  Kingston  ....  445 

State  of  New  Netherland  at  the  Surrender 446 

New  York  a  Cosmopolitan  City 447 

Ecclesiastical  System 447 

Exchange  of  New  Netherland  for  Surinam 447 

Retrocession  of  Acadie  to  France 447 

^-' 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

NEW   ENGLAND   UNDER    CHARLES    II. 

p*c* 
News  of  the  Restoration 450 

Massachusetts  Address  to  the  King 450 

Proclamations  against  the  Regicides - 451 

Eliot's  Christian  Commonwealth 451 

Declaration  of  Chartered  Rights 452 

Charles  II.  proclaimed ;  Quaker  Persecution  suspended ....  453 

Appointment  of  Agents ;  State  of  Affairs  in  England 453 

Royal  Letter ;  Quaker  Persecution  renewed 455 

State  of  Parties  in  Massachusetts 455 

Question  of  the  Right  to  Baptism 456 

Synod  ;  Half-way  Covenant  ...  r 457 

Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  obtain  Charters 458 

Their  Provisions  ;  Religious  Freedom  in  Rhode  Island.  ...  459 

Freehold  Qualification  for  Freemen 461* 

Consolidation  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven 462 

New  England  Union  falls  into  Abeyance  ;  Indian  Missions  463 

Royal  Commissioners ;  their  cold  Reception  in  Massachusetts  464 

Act  for  extending  the  Elective  Franchise ;  Remonstrance..  465 

Royal  Commissioners  in  Connecticut 465 

Baptist  Church  organized  in  Boston  ;  English  Liturgy. . . .  465 

Quarrel  of  Massachusetts  with  the  Commissioners 466 

Their  Proceedings  in  Plymouth  and  Rhode  Island 466 

King's  Province 467 

Governors  of  Rhode  Island 469 

Massachusetts  Veto  on  the  Commissioners 469 

Their  Proceedings  in  New  Hampshire  and  Maine 469 

Their  Affair  with  a  Boston  Constable 469 

Massachusetts  ordered  to  send  Agents  to  answer  for  refusing 

the  Commissioners'  Jurisdiction 471 

Debate  upon  this  Order ;  evasive  Address 471 

Plantation  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council 472 

Circumstances  favor  the  Theocracy 472 

Acts  of  Navigation  not  yet  in  question 473 

Jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts  at  the  Eastward  resumed  . .  .  473 

Disputation  with  the  Baptists 474 


CONTENTS. 

PH. 

Third  Church  in  Boston ;  Quaker  Enthusiasts 474 

Visit  of  Fox ;  Williams's  Dispute  with  the  Quakers 475 

Growing  Commerce  of  Boston ;  Act  for  intercolonial  Duties  476 
County  of  Devonshire  ;  Progress  of  the  Settlements  ...*..    477 

Indian  Tribes ;  Praying  Indians 478 

The  Wampanoags ;  King  Philip  of  Mount  Hope 479 

Origin  of  Philip's  War 480 

March  into  the  Wampanoag  Country ;  forced  Treaty  with 

the  Narragansets 481 

Escape  of  Philip ;  Nipmuck  Hostilities 481 

River  Indians ;  Character  of  the  War 482 

Battle  of  Bloody  Brook  ;  Spread  of  Hostilities 483 

Praying  Indians  suspected ;  their  harsh  Treatment 484 

Omens;  the  War  esteemed  a  Judgment 485 

Extent  of  the  Indian  Combination 485 

New  England  Union  revived  ;  Troops 486 

Expedition  against  the  Narragansets .   487 

Great  Swamp  Fight 487 

Desperation  of  the  Indians ;  Terror  at  its  Height 488 

Captain  Denison's  Expeditions ;  Canochet 489 

Efforts  of  the  Colonists  ;  Battle  of  Montague  Falls 490 

Goffe  the  Regicide ;  Operations  of  Church 490 

Capture  of  Philip's  Wife  and  Child ;  Squaw-sachem  Witamo  491 

Death  of  Philip ;  Indian  Executions 491 

Result  of  the  War  to  the  Indians — to  the  Colonists 493 

Relief  from  Ireland ;  Charges  against  Albany 494 

Historians  of  the  War  ;  Captives  in  Canada 494 

Renewed  Complaints  in  England ;  Agents 495 

New  Hampshire  and  Maine  disannexed  from  Massachusetts  496 

Purchase  of  Maine  ;  Boston  Booksellers 497 

Sagadahoc  ;  Penobscot ;  the  Baron  Castin 497 

Massachusetts  Law  to  enforce  the  Acts  of  Trade 498 

Petition  to  the  King;  Baptist  Meeting  House 499 

New  Demands  and  Concessions  ;  Bradstreet  Governor  ....   499 

Synod  ;  Return  of  the  Agents  ;  Royal  Letter 500 

Randolph  Collector;  Colonial  Naval  Office 500 

Baptist  Meeting  House  closed  ;  Controversy ;  Rogerenes  .  .   501 
New  Hampshire  a  Royal  Province 502 


xxx  CONTENTS. 

PIC* 

Massachusetts  Proprietary  Government  in  Maine 503 

Obstructions  to  Randolph ;  another  Royal  Letter 504 

Affairs  of  England ;  Agents  appointed 504 

New  Instructions  to  the  Agents ;  a  Bribe  offered 505 

Writ  of  Quo  Warranto  ;  Charter  vacated 506 

Affairs  of  New  Hampshire ;  Cranfield ;  Barefoote 507 

CHAPTER  XV. 

VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.  AND 
JAMES  II. 

Institutions  of  Virginia;  Contrast  with  New  England  ....  509 

Navigation  Acts  ;  Berkeley  sent  to  England 511 

Ludwell  Secretary  ;  fourth  Revisal  of  Laws 513 

Persecution  of  Quakers  and  Baptists. 514 

Church  Establishment ;  Judiciary  ;  Indians 515 

Collision  with  Massachusetts -. 518 

Maryland:  Mint;  Export  Duty 519 

Act  for  building  Towns  in  Virginia 519 

First  Slave  Law  in  Virginia — in  Maryland 520 

Conspiracy  of  indented  Servants.  ...  * 521 

Religious  Persecution  ;  Emigration  to  the  Chowan 521 

Virginia  Hospitality ;  Stint  or  Cessation 522 

Domestic  Manufactures ;  Forts  built 522 

Additions  to  the  Slave  Code  ;  free  Negroes  and  Indians .  .  .  523 

Disfranchisement  of  the  poorer  Settlers 524 

Condition  of  Virginia  ;  Berkeley's  Report 524 

Royal  Custom-house  ;  Royal  Grants 526 

Agents  to  buy  up  those  Grants  ;  Taxes 527 

Agents  authorized  to  solicit  a  Charter 527 

Discontents  in  Virginia ;  Indian  War 528 

Act  for  Garrisons  ;  Articles  of  War 530 

Exportations  prohibited  ;  Indian  Trade 532 

Bacon's  Expedition  against  the  Indians 533 

Berkeley  proclaims  him  a  Rebel ;  new  Assembly 533 

Arrest  of  Bacon ;  his  Submission  ;  Act  against  Riots 534 

Bacon's  Insurrection  ;  T.  M.'s  Account  of  it 535 

Act  for  raising  an  Army ;  Indian  Trade  prohibited 539 


CONTENTS.  XXxi 

r*g* 

The  Queen  of  Pamunkey :    541 

Civil  Preforms ;  Act  of  Oblivion 543 

Bacon  attacks  the  Pamunkeys  ;  is  proclaimed  a  Rebel  ....  544 

Bacon's  Convention;  Oath  and  Engagement 544 

Berkeley  retires  to  Accomac 544 

Bland  and  Carver  taken  Prisoners 545 

Berkeley  occupies  Jamestown 545 

Siege  and  Destruction  of  Jamestown 545 

Brent's  Army  dispersed  ;  Gloucester  takes  the  Engagement  545 

Death  of  Bacon  ;  Drummond  and  Lawrence 547 

Ingram  succeeds  Bacon  ;  Capture  of  Hansford 549 

Capture  of  Wilford  and  Cheaseman  ;  Cheaseman's  Wife .  .  550 

Royalist  Rising  in  Gloucester  and  Middlesex  suppressed .  .  .  550 

Ingram's  Capitulation  ;  Ruin  of  the  Insurgents 551 

Charter  ;  Royal  Proclamation  ;  Commissioners  and  Troops  552 

Second  Proclamation  ;  Royal  Instructions .  552 

Berkeley  implacable  ;  Capital  and  other  Punishments 553 

Interference  of  the  Commissioners 554 

Sarah  Drummond ;  Female  Rebels 555 

Acts  of  Assembly 555 

Berkeley  goes  to  England  ;  Jeffreys  Governor 557 

Report  of  the  Commissioners  ;  Berkeley's  Death 557 

Peace  and  Trade  with  the  Indians 558 

Acts  of  Assembly  ;  Question  of  Privilege 558 

Ludwell's  Case  ;  the  Assembly  loses  its  Judicial  Authority  558 

Chicheley  Governor;  the  Frontiers;  Right  of  Fishing.  ...  559 

Culpepper's  Administration  ;   Act  of  Oblivion 560 

Other  Acts  ;  Printing  prohibited ;  Troops  disbanded 560 

Cohabitation  Act ;  Plant  Cutters 561 

Proceedings  against  Beverley  ;  Plant  Cutters  executed ....  563 

Additions  to  the  Slave  Code 563 

Culpepper's  Patent  surrendered 564 

Effingham  Governor  ;  Tax  on  Liquors 564 

Frontier  Defense  ;  Treaty  with  the  Five  Nations 564 

The  Burgesses  lose  the  Appointment  of  their  Clerk 564 

Maryland  and  Carolina  Debts  ;  New  Fees 565 

Court  of  Chancery ;  Papist  Counselors 565 

Attorneys  ;  Domestic  Manufactures ;  Discontents 565 


XXxii  CONTENTS. 

PV 

Maryland ;  its  State  at  the  Proprietary's  Death 560 

Its  Ecclesiastical  Destitution;  Baltimore's  Visit  to  England  566 

State  of  English  Politics ;  Disturbances  in  Maryland 569 

Royal  Order  for  the  Appointment  of  Protestant  Officers  only  569 

Intermarriage  Law ;  Decisions  under  it 570 

Obstacles  to  the  Collection  of  the  intercolonial  Duties 571 

Towns ;  Domestic  Manufactures 571 

Curtailment  of  Boundaries . . 572 

Quo  Warranto  defeated  by  the  Dethronement  of  James  .  . .  572 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 

CHAPTER    I. 

VOYAGES  OF  DISCOVERY.    TERRITORIAL  CLAIMS. 

TT  HEN  Columbus  undertook  his  first  voyage  across  CHAPTER 
the  Atlantic,  the  passage  to  India  by  the  Cape  of  Good  ' 
Hope  was  as  yet  unknown.  The  fabulous  wealth  of  the  1492. 
regions  of  the  East,  especially  as  set  forth  by  the  Vene- 
tian Marco  Polo,  fired  the  bold  imagination  of  that  great 
navigator,  sustained  his  hopes,  and  prompted  his  perse- 
vering efforts.  In  the  newly-invented  astrolabe,  the  pred- 
ecessor of  the  quadrant,  he  possessed  an  instrument  to 
ascertain  his  latitude,  and  in  the  compass,  a  guide  across 
the  sea.  With  scientific  heroism,  relying  on  the  theory 
of  the  earth's  rotundity,  while  the  prevailing  under-esti- 
mate  as  to  its  size  diminished  to  his  ardent  mind  the 
dangers  of  an  untried  voyage — first  of  men,  he  dared  to 
hope  to  reach  Asia  by  a  western  passage.  He  thought 
he  had  done  so ;  the  new  lands  he  had  found  he  called 
the  WEST  INDIES  ;  and  he  zealously  persisted,  and  died  in 
the  belief,  that  those  new  lands  were  a  part  of  Cathay, 
or  Farther  India. 

Amerigo  Vespucci,  following  presently  in  the  track 
of  Columbus,  seems  first  to  have  perceived  in  those  west- 
ern regions  a  NEW  WORLD.  As  such  he  early  de- 
scribed it  in  his  famous  letter  to  Lorenzo  de  Medici;  1504 
to  which  remarkable  announcement,  adding,  as  it  did, 
I.  C 


34  HISTORY    OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  a  fourth  quarter  to  the  globe,  and  soon  confirmed  by  sub- 

sequent  discoveries,  ought  we  not  to  ascribe   the  name 

AMERICA — not,  as  Spanish  historians  jealous  for  the  fame 
of  Columbus  would  have  it,  to  an  alleged  successful  fraud 
on  the  part  of  Vespucci,  in  passing  himself  off  as  having 
first  seen  the  western  continent  ? 

That  continent,  in  fact,  was  first  seen  neither  by  Co- 
lumbus nor  Vespucci.  It  has  even  been  conjectured,  on 
the  strength  of  an  old  Icelandic  ballad,  that,  five  centu- 
ries before  the  time  of  those  great  navigators,  the  North 
American  coasts  were  reached  by  Danish  adventurers 
from  Iceland.  Greenland  they  certainly  discovered  and 
colonized ;  but  their  alleged  visit  to  North  America, 
though  not  without  warm  advocates,  rests  on  evidence 
of  too  mythic  a  character  to  find  a  place  in  authentic 
history.  To  the  Cabots,  at  the  head  of  an  English  ex- 
pedition, the  historical  honor  belongs  of  having,  first  of 
Europeans,  seen  the  main  land  of  the  western  continent. 
England  at  that  period  was  a  feudal  monarchy,  with 
a  population  of  hardly  three  millions,  without  trade  or 
manufactures,  just  emerging  from  the  miseries  of  a  dis- 
puted succession  and  a  long  civil  war.  Scotland,  un- 
quiet and  barbarous,  constituted  a  separate  and  often  hos- 
tile kingdom.  Ireland,  equally  barbarous  and  unquiet, 
was  kept,  with  difficulty,  in  partial  subjection.  Henry 
VII.,  who  united  in  himself  and  his  queen  the  rival  claims 
of  the  two  royal  houses  of  York  and  Lancaster,  eager  for 
revenue,  and  anxious,  like  all  the  monarchs  of  that  day, 
to  create  a  counterbalance  to  the  power  of  the  feudal  no- 
bility, was  disposed  to  encourage  the  long-neglected  arts 
of  peace.  But  that  talent  for  nautical  and  commercial 
enterprise  for  which  the  English  and  their  descendants 
in  America  have  since  been  so  distinguished,  as  yet  lay 
dormant.  The  trade  and  navigation  of  the  British  Isles 


VOYAGES    OF    DISCOVERY.  35 

still  remained,  as  during  the  whole  course  of  the  Middle  CHAPTER 
Ages,  principally  in  the  hands  of  Italians  and  Germans  .'  -t 
from  the  Lombard  cities  and  the  Hanse  towns. 

Portugal  and  Spain,  pioneers  in  voyages  of  discovery, 
vainly  attempted,  by  means  of  a  papal  bull,  to  secure  to  1493. 
themselves  a  monopoly  of  oceanic  navigation.  Cupidity 
and  curiosity  were  excited  in  all  the  maritime  countries 
of  Europe  by  the  announcement  that  Columbus  had 
found  extensive,  populous,  and  gold-producing  regions  in 
the  western  seas.  Among  those  who  shared  this  feeling 
was  John  Cabot,  by  birth  a  Venetian,  but  long  settled 
at  Bristol,  the  principal  port  in  the  west  of  England,  and, 
next  to  London,  the  chief  mart  of  British  commerce. 
The  northwestern  ocean,  as  far  as  Iceland,  was  already 
familiar  to  the  mariners  of  Bristol,  accustomed  to  sail 
thither  on  fishing  enterprises. 

Notwithstanding  the  papal  bull  above  mentioned,  Ca-  1496. 
bot  obtained  from  the  King  of  England  a  commission,  in  arc 
its  general  outline  much  resembling  that  granted  by  Fer- 
dinand and  Isabella  to  Columbus  ;  but  the  English  mon- 
arch, unlike  his  Spanish  cotemporaries,  did  not  bear  the 
expenses  of  the  voyage.  Cabot  himself,  or  any  of  his 
three  sons,  their  heirs  or  deputies,  were  authorized  to  sail 
into  the  eastern,  northern,  or  western  seas  with  a  fleet 
of  five  ships,  and,  at  their  own  expense,  to  search  for  isl- 
ands or  regions  inhabited  by  infidels,  and  hitherto  un- 
known to  Christendom ;  to  take  possession  in  the  name 
of  the  King  of  England,  and,  as  his  vassals,  to  conquer, 
possess,  and  occupy  ;  enjoying  for  themselves,  their  heirs, 
and  assigns  forever,  the  sole  right  of  trading  thither ; 
paying  to  the  king,  in  lieu  of  all  customs  and  imposts,  a 
fifth  of  all  net  profits. 

Provided  with  this  comprehensive  though  questionable 
title  to  the  lands  he  might  discover,  John  Cabot  present- 


36  HISTORY   OF    THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  ly  set  sail,  attended  by  his  son  Sebastian,  a  native  of 

Bristol,  a  young  man  hardly  twenty,  but  enterprising, 

energetic,  and  well  skilled  in  the  science  of  navigation. 
This  remarkable  voyage,  of  which  no  memoir  exists,  has 
been  often  confounded  with  one  made  the  year  after,  un- 
der the  sole  command  of  Sebastian  Cabot.  Uninformed 
as  to  particulars,  we  only  know  that,  more  than  a  year 
before  Columbus  saw  the  main  land  of  America,  and  a 
month  or  two  at  least  before  the  earliest  alleged  arrival 
of  Amerigo  on  the  coast  of  Paria,  the  Cabots  reached  the 

1497.  western  continent,  somewhere  probably  on  the  coast  of 
June  24.  Labrador.      This  new  found  land  abounded  with  white 

bears  and  deer  of  unusual  size — indications  of  an  arctic 
region.  It  was  inhabited  by  savage  men,  clothed  in 
skins,  and  armed  with  bows,  spears,  and  clubs. 

1498.  Having  returned  to  Bristol,  John  Cabot  was  author- 
Feb.  3.  ize^  by  a  second  patent,  to  take  at  his  pleasure,  for  the 

purpose  of  prosecuting  his  discoveries,  five  or  six  ships, 
of  two  hundred  tons  burden  or  less,  any  where  in  En- 
gland or  its  dependencies,  paying  therefor,  as  the  king 
would  in  like  case.  He  was  also  authorized,  by  a  dis- 
pensation of  the  statute  of  fugitives,  to  transport  to  the 
new  found  land  any  who  might  be  willing  to  go  with  him. 
May.  The  youthful  Sebastian  Cabot  was  soon  placed  at  the 
head  of  a  new  voyage,  as  well  for  purposes  of  trade  as 
of  discovery,  in  which  the  king  and  several  merchants 
of  London  and  Bristol  took  shares.  He  set  sail  with 
several  ships,  reached  again  the  new  found  land,  and, 
turning  south,  ran  many  degrees  of  latitude  along  the 
coast,  till  failure  of  provisions  obliged  his  return  to  En- 
gland. Such  is  all  that  we  know  of  this  second  voyage 
to  North  America. 

The  very  month  in  which  Sebastian  Cabot  left  En- 
gland, Vasco  de  Gama,  in  prosecution  of  a  scheme  of 


TERRITORIAL    CLAIMS.  37 

African  discovery  carried  on  by  the  Portuguese  for  half  CHAPTER 

a  century,  having  doubled,  for  the  first  time,  the  Cape  of 

Good  Hope,  reached  Calicut,  in  India.  Thus  was  opened 
to  Europe,  by  a  new  route,  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  the 
vast  territories  of  Farther  Asia,  for  which  Columbus,  then 
on  his  third  voyage,  was  still  vainly  seeking  along  the 
southern  shores  of  the  Caribbean  Sea. 

Cabot  found  no  populous  regions,  like  De  Gama ;  no 
pearls,  nor  gold,  nor  other  precious  commodities,  like  Co- 
lumbus. The  new  found  lands  of  the  north,  unlike  those 
of  the  East  and  West  Indies,  appeared  cold,  sterile,  un- 
peopled, and  worthless.  Yet  they  were  not  without  their 
treasures.  The  vast  shoals  of  cod  on  the  shallows  of  the 
adjacent  ocean  attracted  the  attention,  if  not  of  the  Ca- 
bots,  at  least  of  other  voyagers,  English  and  French,  who 
followed  close  in  their  track ;  and  this  discovery  led  at 
once  to  the  establishment  of  a  regular  fishery,  continued 
from  that  day  to. this.  Within  two  years  after  Sebastian 
Cabot's  voyage,  some  natives  of  the  country  were  brought 
to  London  and  publicly  exhibited  there.  This  fishery  1500. 
on  the  coast  and  bank  of  NEWFOUNDLAND  formed  the  first 
link  between  Europe  and  North  America,  and,  for  a  cen- 
tury, almost  ih,e  only  one. 

It  was  held  in  those  times,  among  the  Christian  states 
of  Europe,  and  is  still  received  as  a  principle  of  the  law 
of  nations,  that  newly-discovered  countries  belong  to  the 
discoverers.  This -title  by  discovery  might  be  liable,  in- 
deed, to  some  exception  in  favor  of  the  native  inhabit- 
ants ;  but,  in  case  those  inhabitants  were  not  Christians, 
they  were  looked  upon  as  fair  subjects  for  plunder  and 
conquest,  the  exclusive  privilege  of  which  was  attached 
to  the  discovery.  In  conformity  with  this  doctrine,  and 
in  right  of  the  discovery  by  the  Cabots,  the  English  sub- 
sequently put  forward  a  claim  to  extensive  regions  of 


38  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  North  America,  a  part  of  which  they  ultimately  coio- 

nized.      But  this  colonization,  necessary  to  complete  the 

title  by  discovery,  was  a  long  time  delayed ;  and  more 
than  eighty  years  elapsed  before  the  English  made  any 
very  vigorous  or  notable  attempt  to  take  permanent  pos- 
session of  any  part  of  America.  The  exploration  of  the 
coast  was  meanwhile  pursued  by  other  nations. 
1501.  Not  content  with  his  recent  discovery  of  the  circum- 
navigability  of  Africa,  and  the  rich  coasts  of  the  Indian 
seas,  the  able  and  enterprising  Emanuel,  king  of  Portu- 
gal, sent  Gaspar  Cortereal  with  two  vessels  to  pursue 
the  track  of  the  Cabots,  and  to  explore  the  northwestern 
ocean.  Cortereal  sailed  six  or  seven  hundred  miles  along 
the  shores  of  North  America.  He  admired  the  stately 
forests,  the  pines  especially,  well  suited  for  yards  and 
masts  ;  but  he  found  nothing  with  which  to  freight  his 
vessels  except  a  number  of  unhappy  natives  kidnapped 
and  carried  to  Portugal  as  slaves.  This  practice  of  kid- 
napping had  grown  familiar  to  the  Portuguese  in  their 
voyages  for  the  last  half  century  along  the  coasts  of  Af- 
rica. Negro  slaves  were  already  common  in  Portugal, 
but  the  natives  of  America  were  not  found  so  suitable 
for  servitude. 

Already,  before  the  sailing  of  Cortereal,  though  the 
fact  was  not  yet  known  in  Portugal,  Cabral,  another 
Portuguese  navigator,  keeping  far  west  on  his  passage 
to  India,  to  avoid  the  calms  common  on  the  African 
coast,  had  lighted  by  accident  on  the  coast  of  Brazil,  so 
called  from  the  red  dye-wood  which  formed  for  a  long 
time  its  principal  export.  Satisfied  with  this  discovery, 
and  engrossed  by  their  Asiatic  and  African  conquests, 
the  Portuguese  resigned  the  exploration  of  the  north  to 
the  obscure  enterprises  of  humble  fishermen,  not -English 
only  or  chiefly,  but  hardy  mariners  also  of  Biscay  in 


VOYAGES   OF  DISCOVERY.  39 

Spain,  and  of  Brittany  and  Normandy,  the  northwest-  CHAPTER 
ern  provinces  of  France.  ' 

It  was  by  fishermen  from  Brittany  that  the  island  of 
CAPE  BRETON  was  discovered  and  named.     Even  at  that  1504. 
early  period  Denny s  of  Harfleur  drew  for  the  use  of  the  1506. 
French  fishermen  a  rude  chart  of  the  Gulf  of  St.  Law- 
rence, though  unknown  as  yet  by  that  name. 

The  Spanish  navigators  who  followed  in  the  track  of 
Columbus,  confined  themselves  for  some  twenty  years  to 
the  exploration  of  the  West  India  Islands,  and  the  coasts 
of  the  Caribbean  Sea.     The  colony  which  Columbus  had 
himself  established  on  the  island  of  Haiti — oldest  of  Eu-  1493. 
ropean  settlements  in  America — was  presently  followed  1508~ 
by  others  at  Porto  Rico,  Jamaica,  and  Cuba.     The  un-     11- 
happy  natives  of  those  islands — a  timid  and  unwarlike 
race — reduced  to  slavery  and  apportioned  among  the  prin- 
cipal adventurers,  were  compelled  to  hunt  for  gold  dust 
in  the  channels  of  the  streams,  or  to  cultivate  the  sugar- 
cane carried  thither  from  the  Canaries  and  the  south  of 
Spain.      The  large  fortunes  thus  realized  attracted  to 
those  islands  a  great  number  of  adventurers,  by  whom 
new  enterprises  of  discovery  were  soon  undertaken. 

Juan  Ponce  de  Leon,  a  companion  of  Columbus,  the 
conqueror  and  first  Spanish  governor  of  Porto  Rico,  en- 
riched by  the  forced  labor  of  the  unhappy  natives  of  that 
island,  expended  a  portion  of  the  wealth  thus  acquired 
in  a  voyage  among  the  Bahamas,  in  search  of  a  fountain 
fabled  to  have  the  power  to  make  young  again  ail  those 
who  bathed  in  its  waters.  The  vague  hopes  of  adven- 
turers, whose  chief  reading  had  been  the  romances  of 
chivalry,  gave  rise,  indeed,  to  a  thousand  chimerical  ex- 
pectations. Even  Columbus  himself  had  been  the  per- 
petual dupe  of  a  lively  imagination  ;  for  the  Indians  were 
ever  ready  to  corroborate,  and  to  repeat  as  a  part  of  their 


40  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  own  traditions  or  knowledge,  fables  suggested  by  the  cred- 

"       ulous  questions  of  their  conquerors.     In  course  of  his 

romantic  search,  on  Palm  Sunday,  which  the  Spaniards 

1512.  call  Pasqua  de  Flores,  Ponce  fell  in  with  that  peninsula 
which  separates  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  from  the  Atlantic 
Ocean,  and  which  he  took  for  another  great  island  like 
Haiti  or  Cuba.  He  landed  at  no  great  distance,  proba- 
bly, from  the  harbor  of  St.  Augustine  ;  and  disregarding 
alike  the  rights  and  the  hostility  of  the  natives,  with  the 
formalities  usual  on  such  occasions,  took  possession  for 
the  King  of  Spain  ;  and,  to  commemorate  the  day  of  the 
discovery,  gave  to  this  new  region  the  name  of  FLORIDA. 
Adventurers  of  that  period  did  not  conceive  themselves 
authorized  to  undertake  enterprises  of  conquest,  except 
by  some  royal  commission,  and  Ponce  proceeded  to  Spain 
to  procure  such  authority.  During  his  protracted  ab- 
sence, Vasquez  de  Aillon,  another  Spanish  navigator, 
visited  the  coast  further  north,  the  region,  perhaps,  about 

1521.  St.  Helena's  Sound,  in  what  is  now  South  Carolina.  He 
also  proceeded  to  Spain,  and  procured  there  a  grant  of 
this  newly-discovered  region,  by  the  name  of  CHICORA. 
The  discovery  and  conquest,  by  Cortez  and  his  follow- 
ers, of  the  rich  and  populous  kingdom  of  Mexico,  then  just 
completed,  had  excited  anew  the  Spanish  imagination. 
Ponce  presently  returned  to  Florida  with  the  design  of 
planting  a  colony,  or,  more  properly,  of  conquering  a  prov- 
ince. But  hardly  had  the  crews  of  his  two  ships  landed, 
when  the  natives  attacked  them  with  poisoned  arrows, 
killed  the  greater  part,  and  obliged  the  rest  to  re-embark. 

1525.       Equally  unsuccessful  was  the  attempt  of  Vasquez  to 
obtain  possession  of  his  province  of  Chicora.      The  In- 
dians, whose  friends  he  had  kidnapped  on  his  former  visit, 
remembered  the  injury,  and  repulsed  him  with  loss. 
Other  Spanish  navigators,  in  the  regular  intercourse 


VOYAGES   OP   DISCOVERY.  41 

now  established  between  the  West  India  Islands  and  the  CHAPTER 

I 

newly-conquered  Mexico,  discovered  land  to  the  north- 

ward,  and  soon  ascertained  the  general  outline  of  the 
Mexican  Gulf.  On  the  southwestern  coast  of  that  gulf 
some  Spanish  settlements  were  already  established — the 
first  on  the  continent — to  serve  as  harbors  for  the  Mexi- 
can empire. 

The  nautical  skill  of  Sebastian  Cabot,  for  which  En- 
gland furnished  no  occupation,  had  sought  employment 
in  the  Spanish  service ;  but,  during  the  period  of  these 
recent  Spanish  discoveries,  Cabot  appears  to  have  return- 
ed to  England,  and  to  have  undertaken  a  new  enterprise, 
not  without  an  important*  influence  on  the  future  explo- 
ration of  North  America.  The  wealth  derived  by  the 
Portuguese  from  the  trade  to  India  was  fast  making 
Lisbon  the  richest  city  in  Europe.  The  voyage  by  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  besides  being  claimed  as  a  monopoly 
by  the  Portuguese,  was  also  very  long  ;  and  hence  the  re- 
vival of  the  scheme  of  Columbus  for  a  western  passage 
to  India.  The  outline  of  the*  American  coast  along  the 
Atlantic  was  as  yet  very  imperfectly  known.  The  New 
World  was  perhaps  a  series  of  islands,  among  which  a 
western  passage  might  be  found.  The  discovery  of  the  1513. 
South  Sea  by  Nunez  de  Balboa,  who  had  ^penetrated 
across  the  Isthmus  of  Darien,  demonstrated  the  narrow- 
ness of  the  continent  in  that  part,  and  encouraged  these 
hopes.  In  pursuit  of  such  a  passage,  Cabot  sailed  from 
England.  The  date  of  this  voyage  is  uncertain,  and  the 
accounts  of  it  contradictory  and  obscure ;  but  he  seems 
to  have  penetrated  into  that  great  northern  bay,  which 
Hudson  re-discovered  near  a  century  afterward,  where  his 
course  was  cut  short,  neither  by  land  nor  ice,  but  by  the 
cowardice  and  disobedience  of  one  of  his  subordinate  offi- 
cers. The  English  were  not  prepared  to  follow  up  this 


42  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  enterprise,  and  Cabot,  returning  to  the  service  of  Spain, 
.___  found  employment  in  exploring  the  La  Plata,  discovered 
by  Juan  de  Solis  the  same  year  in  which  Ponce  had  first 
seen  Florida. 

A  western  passage  to  India  was  in  fact  discovered, 
though  not  in  the  direction  in  which  Cabot  had  sought 
it.  The  adventurous  Magellan,  keeping  boldly  to  the 
south,  entered  the  straits  which  bear  his  name,  and  by 
that  stormy  and  dangerous  passage  penetrated  into  the 
1520.  South  Pacific,  across  which  he  boldly  steered  for  India. 
He  died  on  the  voyage ;  but  his  ship,  after  discovering 
the  Philippine  Islands,  returned  to  Spain  by  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  thus  realizing  the  bold  vision  of  Columbus, 
and  completing  the  first  circumnavigation  of  the  globe. 
But  the  southwestern  passage  to  India  by  the  Straits  of 
Magellan,  besides  being  claimed  as  a  Spanish  monopoly, 
was  still  longer  and  more  dangerous  than  that  by  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope.  A  western  or  northwestern  pas- 
sage still  remained,  therefore,  a  problem  for  navigators, 
and  an  object  of  commercial  desire  and  pursuit. 

The  great  wealth  derived  by  the  Spaniards  from  the 
conquest  of  Mexico  attracted  new  attention  to  America. 
1524.  Verrazzani,  a  Florentine,  dispatched  from  France  on  the 
first  voyage  of  discovery  undertaken  from  that  country  at 
the  public  expense,  after  touching  at  several  places  fur- 
ther south,  discovered  and  entered  the  harbors  now  so  fa- 
miliar as  New  York  and  Newport,  whence  he  coasted  the 
then  nameless  shores  of  New  England  and  Nova  Scotia 
as  far  as  the  50th  degree  of  north  latitude.  Verrazza- 
ni's  letter  to  Francis  I.,  giving  a  brief  narrative  of  this 
voyage,  contains  the  earliest  description  extant  of  the 
coasts  and  aboriginal  people  of  what  are  now  the  United 
States. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  north  of  Italy,  especially  the 


VOYAGES   OF  DISCOVERY. 


43 


Genoese,  the  Venetians,  and  the  Florentines,  were  at  this  CHAPTER 

period  the  most  commercial,  industrious,  and  enlightened 

people  in  Europe,  and,  except  perhaps  the  Portuguese, 
the  best  versed  in  the  science  and  art  of  navigation.  Of 
the  navigators  who  first  explored  the  shores  of  the  New 
World,  Columbus,  the  elder  Cabot,  Amerigo,  and  Ver- 
razzani  were  Italians.  But  Genoa  and  Florence  had  lost 
their  liberties,  and  were  sinking  in  a  rapid  decline  ;  Ven- 
ice, become  a  close  aristocracy,  was  employing  all  her  en- 
ergies in  attempting  to  shield  her  commerce  with  India 
by  the  ancient  route  of  Egypt  and  the  Red  Sea  against 
the  effects  of  Portuguese  competition  by  the  new  pas- 
sage round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  The  eminent  nav- 
igators above  named  were  not  employed  by  their  native 
cities.  They  sailed  in  the  service  of  foreign  princes. 
Spain,  Portugal,  England,  and  France  profited  by  the 
science  of  Italy,  and  acquired  vast  possessions  in  America, 
where  no  Italian  state  ever  possessed  a  foot  of  territory. 
Whether  Verrazzani  undertook  a  second  voyage  is  un- 
certain ;  but  his  track  was  immediately  followed  by  Go- 
mez, dispatched  by  the  Spanish  council  of  the  Indies,  it 
would  seem,  as  a  sort  of  rival  to  Cabot,  in  search  of  a 
western  or  northwestern  passage  into  the  Pacific,  which 
Gomez  had  already  traversed,  as  the  companion  of  Ma- 
gellan, in  the  first  circumnavigation  of  the  globe.  His  1525. 
present  voyage  degenerated,  like  that  of  Cortereal  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  before,  into  a  mere  kidnapping  expedi- 
tion, a  practice  already  familiar  to  the  Spaniards  of  the 
West  Indies,  who  sought  by  this  means  to  fill  up  the 
gap  which  their  inexorable  avarice  occasioned  in  the  once 
numerous  population  of  Haiti  and  the  adjacent  islands. 
This  resource,  however,  was  found  quite  insufficient,  and 
slaves  from  Africa,  more  capable  of  endurance,  already 
began  to  be  imported  into  the  West  Indies.  Las  Casas, 


44  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  friend  and  protector  of  the  Indians,  had  suggested  and 

favored  this  substitute — a  suggestion  which  the  colonists 

were  prompt  to  seize,  and  which  the  benevolent  bishop 
lived  to  condemn  and  lament.  The  system  of  personal 
servitude  was  fast  disappearing  from  Western  Europe, 
where  the  idea  had  obtained  that  it  was  inconsistent  with 
Christian  duty  for  Christians  to  hold  Christians  as  slaves. 
But  this  charity  did  not  extend  to  heathen  and  infidels. 
The  same  system  of  morality  which  held  the  possessions 
of  unbelievers  as  lawful  spoils  of  war,  delivered  over  their 
persons  also  to  the  condition  of  servitude.  Hence,  in 
America,  the  slavery  of  the  Indians,  and  presently  of  ne- 
groes, whom  experience  proved  to  be  much  more  capable 
of  enduring  the  hardships  of  that  condition. 

The  exploration  of  Florida  hitherto  had  been  limited 
to  the  coast ;  Pamphilo  de  Narvaez  was  first  to  pene- 
trate inland.  Narvaez  had  taken  an  active  part  in  the 
conquest  of  Cuba,  and  subsequently  had  been  dispatched 
by  the  governor  of  that  island  to  dispute  with  Cortez  the 
conquest  of  Mexico,  but  on  that  occasion  had  fallen  a 
prisoner  into  the  hands  of  his  abler  rival.  Setting  sail 
1528.  from  Cuba  in  search  of  a  new  Mexico,  he  landed  with 
three  hundred  men  on  the  northern  shore  of  the  gulf,  near 
the  Bay  of  Appalache.  After  wandering  inland  for  some 
distance,  and  finding  nothing  satisfactory,  he  turned  west- 
ward, and  struggled  on  through  pine  forests  and  morasses, 
and  across  rivers,  as  far,  perhaps,  as  the  Bay  of  Pensa- 
cola.  Discouraged  and  greatly  reduced  in  numbers,  his 
company  built  small  boats,  in  which  they  hoped  to  reach 
some  Spanish  settlement ;  but  the  boats  were  driven 
on  shore  in  a  storm,  and  four  men  only  of  the  whole 
company  succeeded  at  last,  after  long  wanderings,  in 
reaching  Mexico  by  land. 

While  the  Spaniards  were  engrossed  with  the  conquest 


VOYAGES    OF    DISCOVERY.  45 

of  Peru,  Jaques  Cartier,  a  mariner  of  St.  Malo,  was  dis-  CHAPTER 

patched  by  Chabot,  admiral  of  France,  on  the  humbler 

but  more  just  and  honorable  errand  of  exploring  those 
northern  coasts  of  the  New  World  already  familiar  to  the 
French  fishermen.  Setting  sail  with  two  ships,  Cartier  1534. 
made  the  coast  of  Newfoundland  in  twenty  days,  and, 
having  nearly  circumnavigated  that  island,  crossed  the 
yet  nameless  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  and  entered  a  bay 
which  he  named  Des  Chaleurs,  from  the  heats  of  mid- 
summer then  prevailing.  Tracing  the  coast  to  the  north, 
he  discovered  and  named  the  Bay  of  Gaspe,  and  took 
possession  of  the  adjacent  country  for  the  King  of  France. 
A  great  estuary  opened  before  him,  which  he  ascended 
till  he  could  see  land  on  both  sides ;  but,  as  winter  was 
approaching,  he  turned  about,  and  in  thirty  days  reached 
St.  Malo,  carrying  with  him  two  of  the  natives.  The 
report  of  this  voyage  produced  quite  an  excitement  in  1535. 
France,  and  Cartier  was  fitted  out  the  next  spring  with 
three  large  ships  and  a  number  of  colonists.  As  he  passed 
to  the  northward  of  Anticosti  on  the  day  of  St.  Law- 
rence, he  gave  the  name  of  that  saint  to  the  water  through 
which  he  was  sailing — a  name  gradually  extended  to  the 
whole  gulf  and  to  the  great  river  flowing  into  it.  Up 
that  river  or  estuary  Cartier  ascended  till  he  reached  a 
fertile  island  full  of  vines,  which  he  called  the  Isle  of 
Bacchus,  now  Orleans.  The  two  natives  brought  back 
served  as  interpreters.  He  was  hospitably  entertained 
by  a  chief  of  that  neighborhood,  and,  by  his  invitation, 
ascended  in  boats  to  a  considerable  village  on  the  island 
of  Hochalaga.  To  a  hill  on  that  island  Cartier  gave  the 
name  Mont  Real,  now  borne  by  the  whole  island  and  the 
city  built  upon  it.  He  returned  to  his  ships  and  spent 
the  winter  at  the  Isle  of  Bacchus,  where  his  people  suf- 
fered much  from  the  scurvy.  They  found  relief  from  a 


46  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  decoction  of  pine  Jmds,  recommended  by  the  Indians  ;  but 

, the  sickness,  the  cold,  and  the  long  winter  seem  to  have 

1536.  discouraged  the  intended  colonists.  In  the  spring  they 
all  returned ;  and  so  narrow  at  that  time  were  the  cur- 
rent notions  of  justice  and  humanity,  that  Cartier  did  not 
hesitate  to  kidnap  the  Indian  chief  from  whom  he  had 
received  so  many  favors. 

That  same  year  a  merchant  of  London,  named  Hore, 
a  man  of  some  scientific  acquirements,  attempted  a  set- 
tlement in  Newfoundland — an  enterprise  in  which  he 
was  joined  by  some  young  adventurers  of  family  and 
character.  But  this  first  attempt  at  English  coloniza- 
tion in  America  proved  very  disastrous.  The  adventu- 
rers only  saved  themselves  from  starvation  by  seizing  a 
French  fishing  vessel  which  had  just  arrived  on  the  coast 
well  victualed,  in  which  they  escaped  to  England. 

The  idea  in  France  of  colonizing  the  coasts  of  the  St. 
Lawrence,  though  somewhat  damped  by  the  result  of 
Cartier's  second  voyage,  was  not  yet  abandoned.  Fran- 

1540.  cis  de  la  Roque,  lord  of  Robertval,  in  Picardy,  obtained 
from  Francis  I.  the  appointment  of  viceroy  and  lieuten- 
ant general  for  Canada,  Hochalaga,  Saguenay,  Newfound- 
land, Belle  Isle,  Cape  Breton,  and  Labrador,  with  au- 
thority to  make  conquests  and  to  plant  a  colony.      Car- 
tier  also  received  a  commission  as  chief  pilot  and  cap- 
tain general.      To  obtain  men  for  the  enterprise,  author- 
ity was  given  to  ransack  the  prisons — hopeful  materials 
for  the  foundation  of  a  state  !      The  two  commanders 
could  not  agree,  and  did  not  act  in  concert.      Cartier 

1541.  sailed  first  with  five  ships,  ascended  the  St.  Lawrence, 
and  built  a  fort  on  the  Island  of  Orleans,  where  he  passed 
the  winter.     His  provisions  failed  ;  the  natives,  disgust- 
ed at  his  former  treacherous  conduct,  were  now  hostile ; 

1542.  and,  when  the  spring  opened,  he  set  sail  for  France.    Off 


TERRITORIAL    CLAIMS.  47 

Newfoundland  he  encountered  Robertval  on  his  outward  CHAPTER 

passage,  with  three  ships  and  two  hundred  men.      Ro- 

bertval  would  have  persuaded  or  compelled  him  to  return ; 
but  Cartier  escaped  in  the  night,  and  kept  on  his  home- 
ward course.  Robertval  proceeded  to  the  St.  Lawrence, 
where  he  spent  the  winter,  but  in  the  spring  returned 
to  France.  Several  years  later  he  embarked  on  a  sec-  1549. 
ond  expedition,  but  was  never  again  heard  of.  The  dis- 
coveries of  the  French  fishermen,  but  more  especially  the 
explorations  of  Verrazzani  and  Cartier,  served  as  found- 
ation for  a  claim  by  France  to  the  northern  portion  of 
the  American  continent. 

While  the  French  were  thus  vainly  attempting  the 
occupation  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  the  Spaniards  made  an- 
other effort,  not  less  vain,  for  the  possession  of  Florida. 
This  enterprise  was  undertaken  by  Ferdinand  de  Soto, 
who  had  distinguished  and  enriched  himself  in  the  recent 
conquest  of  Peru.  He  had  been  appointed  by  Charles 
V.  governor  of  Cuba,  and  had  obtained  also  a  grant  of 
Florida,  in  the  interior  of  which  he  hoped  to  find  and  to 
plunder  populous  and  wealthy  nations.  For  an  expedi- 
tion thither,  he  collected,  in  Spain  and  the  West  Indies, 
an  army  of  a  thousand  men,  horse  and  foot,  a  force  more 
formidable  than  that  which  Cortez  had  led  to  the  con- 
quest of  Mexico.  While  his  late  companions  in  Peru 
were  subduing  Chili  on  the  one  side  and  New  Granada 
on  the  other,  and  exploring  the  great  southern  rivers,  the 
Orinoco  and  the  Amazons,  De  Soto  sailed  from  Havana,  1539. 
and  landed  at  Tampa  Bay,  on  the  west  side  of  the  penin-  y' 
sula  of  Florida,  whence  he  penetrated  into  the  interior, 
first  northerly,  and  then  to  the  westward.  He  fought 
several  battles  with  the  natives,  toward  whom  he  acted 
with  all  the  customary  arrogance  and  cruelty  of  the  ad- 
venturers of  that  day ;  but  he  nowhere  found  that  rich 
and  populous  country  for  which  he  was  in  search.  Push- 


48  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  ing  still  to  the  westward,  he  seems  to  have  passed  along 

the  southern  sweep  of  the  Alleganies,   and  across  the 

heads  of  the  rivers  flowing  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  till, 
at  the  end  of  two  years,  he  reached  the  banks  of  the 

1541.  Mississippi,  at  no  great  distance,  it  is  probable,  from  the 
southern  boundary  of  the  present  State  of  Tennessee. 
Keeping  still  to  the  west,  he  reached  the  mountains  of 
Arkansas,  and  passed  the  winter  on  some  river  of  that 
region,  down  which  he  descended  the  next  spring  to  its 

1542.  junction  with  the  Mississippi.     Here  De  Soto  died.    The 
remnant  of  his  followers,   greatly  reduced  by  fatigue, 
hunger,  and  combats  with  the  natives,  built  small  ves- 
sels, floated  down  the   Mississippi  to  its  mouth,  and, 
coasting  the  gulf,  landed  at  last  at  a  Spanish  settlement 
near  the  present  site  of  Tampico. 

1540  -  While  De  Soto  was  engaged  in  this  exploration,  a 
42.  not  less  adventurous  expedition  was  undertaken  to  re- 
gions still  more  interior  and  remote.  By  the  orders  of 
Mendoza,  viceroy  of  Mexico,  Vasquez  Coronado,  with  a 
force  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  Spaniards  and  eight  hund- 
red Indians,  set  out  from  Culiacan,  on  the  southeastern 
shore  of  the  Gulf  of  California,  then  the  northwestern 
limit  of  Spanish  Mexican  conquest,  whence  he  pene- 
trated north  along  the  shores  of  the  gulf  to  the  River 
Gila,  now  the  southwestern  boundary  of  the  United 
States.  That  river  he  followed  to  its  head,  and,  cross- 
ing the  mountains,  reached  the  upper  waters  of  the  Rio 
del  Norte,  which  he  followed  also  to  their  sources,  and 
then  struck  off  northeasterly  into  the  great  interior  des- 
ert as  far  as  the  40th  degree  of  north  latitude.  In  all 
this  vast  region,  little  was  found  save  rugged  mountains 
and  arid  plains.  There  were  Indian  villages  in  some  of 
the  valleys,  but  little  to  tempt  or  reward  a  conquest. 

Already  the  peninsula  of  California  had  been  discovered, 
and  the  shores  of  the  gulf  partially  explored,  through  the 


TERRITORIAL   CLAIMS.  49 

enterprise  and  at  the  expense  of  Cortez,  the  conqueror  of  CHAPTER 
Mexico.      Simultaneously  with  the  expedition  under  Co-        ' 
ronado,  Francisco  Alar9on  was  sent  to  trace  the  Pacific 
coast  to  the  north,  in  hopes  to  find  an  imagined  gulf  or 
strait  leading  into  the  Atlantic.     He  reached  no  higher 
than  the  36th  degree  of  north  latitude ;   Rodriguez  de 
Cabrillo,  sent  to  renew  the  enterprise,  traced  the  coast  1542. 
as  far  north  as  the  44th  degree. 

Soto's  disasters  and  Coronado's  want  of  success  dis- 
sipated the  delusions  of  the  Spaniards,  so  far,  at  least,  as 
North  America  was  concerned.  The  undiscovered  land 
of  gold  changed  its  site,  and,  under  the  name  of  El  Do- 
rado, was  thenceforth  located  in  South  America,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Orinoco,  amid  the  impenetrable  forests  and 
mountains  of  Guiana.  The  Indians  on  the  northern 
shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  made  hostile  by  slaving  ex- 
peditions, repulsed  the  Dominican  friars  who  attempted  1549. 
to  establish  missions  among  them.  The  spirit  which, 
since  the  voyages  of  Columbus,  had  carried  the  Spaniards, 
in  the  course  of  half  a  century,  through  such  a  course  of 
discovery  and  conquest,  began  now  to  decline.  Soto's 
discoveries  were  not  prosecuted,  and  a  hundred  and  thirty 
years  elapsed  before  the  Mississippi  was  again  visited  by 
white  men.  The  country  on  the  Upper  del  Norte,  as 
we  shall  presently  see,  was  conquered  and  colonized  at  a 
much  earlier  peripd. 

In  virtue  of  the  discovery  of  Columbus,  backed  by  a 
grant  from  the  pope  and  a  treaty  of  partition  with  Por- 
tugal, the  Spanish  court  made  a  general  claim  to  the 
whole  continent  of  America,  Brazil  only  excepted.  Upon 
the  discoveries  of  Ponce  de  Leon,  Vasquez,  Narvaez, 
De  Soto,  and  others,  they  founded  more  particularly  their 
claim  to  Florida,  under  which  name  they  included  an  in- 
definite extent  of  the  Atlantic  coast  of  North  America. 
I.  D 


50  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES 


CHAPTER   II. 

ASPECT  AND  ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS  OF  NORTH 
AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  ITHIN  the  first  half  century  after  the  discovery  of 
-  America,  the  Spaniards  had  overrun  and  occupied  no  in- 
considerable portion  of  the  new  continent,  on  both  sides 
of  the  equator.  The  original  Spanish  colonies,  planted  in 
the  four  great  islands  of  the  West  Indies,  in  consequence 
of  the  extermination  of  the  native  inhabitants  were  now 
in  a  declining  state  ;  but  the  conquered  empires  of  Mex- 
ico and  Peru,  of  Guatemala,  New  Granada,  and  Chili, 
and  the  vast  treasures  of  silver  derived  from  the  recently- 
discovered  mines  of  Potosi,  and  others  in  Mexico,  gave 
America  every  day  a  new  importance  in  the  eyes  of  Eu- 
rope. Nor  had  Portugal  neglected  her  Brazilian  terri- 
1539—  tories.  A  series  of  colonies  had  been  established  along 
49.  that  coast,  and  the  city  of  Bahia,  or  San  Salvador,  had 
been  founded  as  the  capital  of  the  Portuguese  settlements. 
These  splendid  enterprises  and  lucrative  conquests  had 
thrown  North  America  quite  into  the  shade.  The  fish- 
ery of  Newfoundland  still  continued  the  only  connecting 
link  between  that  country  and  Europe.  But  the  grow- 
ing importance  of  that  fishery  was  attested  by  an  act  of 
1543.  the  English  Parliament,  of  which  the  object  was  to  pro- 
tect the  fishermen  against  the  exactions  of  the  Admiralty 
officers.  These  fishermen,  French,  Portuguese,  Span- 
ish, and  English,  whose  principal  resorts  were  the  south- 
eastern bays  and  harbors  of  that  great  island  to  which 
the  name  of  Newfoundland  began  now  to  be  confined, 
built  temporary  huts  on  the  shore  for  the  convenience 


ASPECT   AND   INHABITANTS.  5  J 

of  their  business,  and  stages  for  drying  their  fish ;  but  CHAPTER 

nowhere  north  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  had  any  success- 

ful  attempt  been  made  at  permanent  occupation. 

That  distant  region  presented,  on  the  whole,  an  as- 
pect little  inviting.  In  more  southern  latitudes,  the  coast, 
for  a  great  extent  destitute  of  harbors,  was  a  dead  level, 
but  little  elevated  above  the  ocean,  and  swept,  in  spring 
and  autumn,  by  terrible  storms.  The  winters,  even  in 
the  parallels  of  Spain  and  Italy,  were  exceedingly  tedi- 
ous and  severe ;  the  summers,  on  the  other  hand,  were 
excessively  hot ;  and  the  climate  was  every  where  re- 
markable, at  all  seasons,  for  frequent  changes  and  ex- 
treme vicissitudes  unknown  in  Western  Europe.  The 
northern  coasts  abounded  with  excellent  harbors ;  the 
land  was  higher  ;  even  mountains,  in  some  places,  might 
dimly  be  seen  in  the  distance  ;  but  of  the  interior  no  ex- 
plorations had  been  made.  Except  the  region  of  New- 
foundland, the  North  American  coast  was  seldom  vis- 
ited. Even  the  outline  of  the  shores  was  not  yet  ascer- 
tained. As  to  the  breadth  or  configuration  of  the  con- 
tinent, nothing  was  known.  The  narrowness  of  the 
land  between  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  Pacific  still 
kept  up  the  idea  that  North  America  might  be  a  long 
and  narrow  extent  of  coasts,  perhaps  a  succession  of  isl- 
ands, among  which  it  was  still  hoped  that  a  short  west- 
ern passage  to  India  might  be  found. 

At  the  period  of  European  discovery,  this  vast  and  un- 
known country,  lying  as  vet  in  a  state  of  nature,  hardly 
modified  at  all  by  the  hand  of  man,  was  thinly  inhab- 
ited by  a  peculiar  race  known  to  Europeans  under  the 
general  name  of  INDIANS — a  name  which  still  commem- 
orates the  error  of  Columbus  in  mistaking  America  for 
a  part  of  India. 

Presenting  human  society  under  its  simplest  and  most 


52  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  inartificial  forms,  these  aboriginal  inhabitants  were  di- 
vided  into  a  great  number  of  petty  tribes,  dwelling  to- 
gether in  little  villages  of  huts  made  with  the  boughs  of 
trees,  and  covered  with  mats  ingeniously  woven.  These 
villages,  by  way  of  defense,  were  sometimes  surrounded 
by  a  rude  palisade  of  trees  or  brushwood,  or  placed  on 
some  little  islet  in  the  midst  of  a  morass.  For  conven- 
ience of  fishing,  they  were  often  built  on  inlets  of  the 
sea,  or  near  the  falls  of  some  river.  Each  village  had 
chiefs  of  its  own,  who  were  often  hereditary.  The  petty 
tribes  were  generally  united  into  confederacies  of  greater 
or  less  extent,  with  superior  chiefs  exercising  a  certain 
authority  over  the  whole. 

Neighboring  confederacies  sometimes  spoke  languages 
radically  distinct ;  yet  the  dialects  of  all  the  tribes  north 
of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  south  of  Hudson's  Bay,  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  are  thought  by 
philologists  capable,  with  few  exceptions,  of  being  re- 
duced under  five  general  heads. 

The  most  widely-diffused  of  these  five  languages,  called 
the  Algonquin,  after  one  of  the  tribes  of  Canada,  from 
whom  the  French  missionaries  first  learned  it,  is  exceed- 
ingly harsh  and  guttural,  with  few  vowels,  and  words 
often  of  intolerable  length,  occasioned  by  complicated 
grammatical  forms — a  whole  sentence,  by  means  of  suf- 
fixes and  affixes,  being  often  expressed  in  a  single  word. 
This  character,  indeed,  is  common,  in  a  greater  or  less 
degree,  to  all  the  American  languages,  serving  to  distin- 
guish them,  in  a  remarkable  manner,  from  the  dialects 
of  the  Old  World.  Tribes  of  Algonquin  speech  extended 
from  Hudson's  Bay  southeast  beyond  the  Chesapeake, 
and  southwest  to  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio.  They  in- 
closed, however,  several  formidable  confederacies,  the  Hu- 
rons,  the  Iroquois,  the  Eries,  and  others  settled  around 


ABORIGINAL    INHABITANTS.  53 

Lakes  Erie  and  Ontario,  and  occupying  all  the  upper  wa-  CHAPTER 
ters  of  the  western  tributaries  of  the  Chesapeake,  who 
spoke  a  different  language,  less  guttural  and  far  more 
sonorous,  called  the  Wyandot,  after  a  tribe  inhabiting 
the  north  shore  of  Lake  Erie,  The  Cherokee  is  peculiar 
to  a  confederacy  of  that  name,  occupants  for  centuries 
of  the  southern  valleys  of  the  great  Allegany  chain,  from 
whence  they  have  been  but  very  lately  expelled.  The 
common  name  of  Mobilian  includes  the  kindred  dialects 
of  the  Choctaws,  the  Chickasaws,  the  Creeks  or  Musco- 
gees,  the  Appalachees,  and  Yamassees,  ancient  inhabit- 
ants of  the  valley  of  the  Lower  Mississippi,  and  thence, 
by  the  southern  foot  of  the  Alleganies,  to  the  Savannah 
and  beyond  it.  Compared  with  the  northern  languages,, 
the  Cherokee  and  Mobilian  are  soft  and  musical,  abound- 
ing with  vowels,  thus  indicating  the  long-continued  in- 
fluence of  a  southern  climate.  The  number  of  syllables 
in  the  Cherokee  is  very  limited — a  circumstance  of 
which  an  uninstructed  but  ingenious  member  of  that 
tribe  recently  availed  himself  to  invent  a  syllabic  alpha- 
bet, by  means  of  which  the  Cherokee  is  written  and  read 
with  great  facility.  Of  the  ancient  state  of  the  wander- 
ing tribes  of  the  prairies  west  of  the  Mississippi  little  is 
known ;  but  the  Dacotah  or  Sioux,  still  spoken  in  a  great 
variety  of  dialects,  has  been  probably  for  centuries  the 
prevailing  language  of  that  region.  The  Catawbas,  who 
have  left  their  name  to  a  river  of  Carolina,  and  who  once 
occupied  a  wide  adjacent  territory ;  the  lichees,  on  the 
Savannah,  subjects  of  the  Creeks  ;  the  Natchez,  a  small 
confederacy  on  the  Lower  Mississippi,  in  the  midst  of 
the  Choctaws,  appear  to  have  spoken  peculiar  languages ; 
and  no  doubt  there  were  other  similar  cases.  Of  the  dia- 
lects west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  hardly  any  thing  is 
known. 


54  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

DHAPTER       It  is  from  their  languages  only  that  some  faint  trace 
-  may  be  obtained  of  the  derivation  and  wanderings  of  the 

Indian  tribes.  Other  monuments  they  had  none.  Their 
sole  records  were  a  few  rude  drawings  on  skins  or  bark, 
or,  among  some  tribes,  belts  of  beads  made  of  shells,  and 
used  to  commemorate  their  treaties.  Of  any  period  be- 
yond the  memory  of  their  old  men  they  knew  absolutely 
nothing.  They  had,  indeed,  some  vague  traditions,  im- 
portant if  we  had  them  in  a  pure  version,  not  however  for 
their  historical  character,  but  as  illustrating  the  ideas  of 
the  Indians  and  the  process  by  which  legends  are  every 
where  formed.  But  these  traditions,  early  modified  by 
suggestions  borrowed  from  the  white  men,  come  to  us  so 
colored  by  the  fancies  and  preconceived  opinions  of  those 
who  report  them,  as  to  lose  a  great  part  of  the  value 
they  might  otherwise  have  had. 

The  religious  and  political  arrangements  and  opinions 
of  the  Indians  also  come  to  us,  in  the  books  of  historians 
and  tourists,  invested  with  a  systematic  consistency  and 
coherence  strangers  to  the  forests  and  prairies  of  the  wil- 
derness. Strictly  speaking,  according  to  our  notions,  the 
Indians  could  hardly  be  said  to  have  had  either  govern- 
ment or  laws.  The  whole  tribe  came  together  to  delib- 
erate on  matters  of  public  interest,  such  as  war,  peace, 
or  a  change  of  hunting  grounds.  The  old,  as  in  all  rude 
communities,  had  great  weight,  from  their  experience ; 
but  it  was  the  weight  only  of  sage  advice,  and,  if  that 
failed  to  control  the  younger  and  more  ardent,  the  elders 
had  no  authority  by  which  to  re-enforce  it.  Those  who 
had  superior  energy  of  character,  the  gift  of  oratory,  or 
a  reputation  for  wisdom,  swayed  by  their  vigor,  their 
eloquence,  or  their  councils  the  decisions  of  the  tribe. 
They  were  chiefs  ;  chiefs,  however,  rather  by  nature 
than  by  any  artificial  arrangement  or  special 


ABORIGINAL    INHABITANTS.  5*5 

ment.  An  influence  still  more  predominant  attached  to  CHAPTER 
the  courage,  strength,  and  stratagem  of  the  eminent  war-  __ 
rior.  But  this  influence,  in  either  case,  rather  resem- 
bled that  of  party  leaders  among  us  than  the  definite 
authority  of  legal  magistrates.  Though  individual  In- 
dians often  stood  in  great  awe  of  their  chiefs,  there  seems 
to  have  been  no  means  of  coercing  a  reluctant  minority. 
If  a  war  party  was  proposed,  it  consisted  wholly  of  vol- 
unteers ;  only  those  went  who  chose,  or  who  had  confi- 
dence in  the  chiefs  offering  to  lead ;  and  so  it  was  in  all 
other  matters  requiring  co-operation. 

There  was,  however,  a  third  source  of  influence  far 
more  effective,  and  the  foundation,  often,  of  a  highly  des- 
potic authority,  obtained  by  those  who  possessed  the  tal- 
ent and  the  cast  of  mind  to  work  upon  the  superstitious 
imaginations  of  their  fellows.  The  Indians,  like  all  rude 
men,  were  very  superstitious.  They  believed  most  de- 
voutly in  dreams,  revelations,  omens,  charms.  They  as- 
cribed an  invisible  guardian  spirit  to  every  man,  every 
animal,  every  natural  object.  They  were  addicted  to 
religious  fastings  and  lonely  meditations ;  they  subject- 
ed themselves  to  severe  penances  in  hopes  to  propitiate 
the  invisible  powers,  or  to  produce  that  morbid  excite- 
ment of  fancy  which  they  mistook  for  visioa  or  inspira- 
tion. The  ordinary  priests  or  pow-wows,  more  recently 
known  as  "  medicine  men,"  the  leaders  of  the  Indians  in 
their  superstitious  devotions,  professed  also  the  art  of 
healing  ;  and  to  the  cure  of  fevers  and  other  diseases  by 
herbs  and  vapor  baths,  in  which  they  possessed  some  lit- 
tle skill,  they  added  incantations  and  ceremonies  to  drive 
away  the  spirits  regarded  as  the  causes  of  all  violent  dis- 
orders, and,  indeed,  of  all  phenomena  of  which  some  other 
explanation  was  not  immediately  obvious.  In  the  pos- 
sibility of  communicating  with  the  world  of  spirits,  and 


56  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  of  employing  its  agency  in  human  affairs,  the  Indians 
_____  were  firm  believers  ;   and  enthusiastic  and  artful  individ- 
uals, by  assuming  the  character  of  inspired  prophets  and 
workers  of  miracles,  often  obtained  implicit  reverence, 
and  almost  absolute  authority. 

It  thus  happened  that  different  communities  present- 
ed great  differences  in  apparent  forms  of  government. 
Some  tribes  seemed  the  slaves  of  a  spiritual  despotism ; 
others  resembled  a  limited  monarchy ;  others  an  oligarchy 
governed  by  two  or  three  powerful  chiefs  ;  and  others  yet 
a  democracy,  in  which  all  the  warriors  stood  nearly  upon 
a  level.  The  character  of  chief  was  often  hereditary, 
and  was  sometimes  exercised  even  by  women.  But  the 
ideas  of  the  Indians  on  the  subject  of  descent  differed 
from  those  of  Europe.  The  heir  was  not  the  chiefs  own 
son,  but  the  son  of  his  sister — a  usage  universal  through- 
out America,  wherever  hereditary  descent  was  in  vogue. 
Birth,  however,  was  of  little  avail  when  other  qualifi- 
cations were  wanting.  The  title  of  chief  might  remain, 
but  the  influence  passed  into  other  hands. 

The  hunting  grounds  and  territory  of  the  Indians  ap- 
pertained not  to  the  chiefs  nor  to  individuals,  but  to  the 
tribe  or  confederacy.  Yet  their  notions  of  individual 
property  were  clear  and  exact.  Each  Indian  had  a  well- 
established  right  in  the  wigwam  he  had  built,  in  the 
growing  corn  he  had  planted,  in  the  game  he  had  killed, 
and  in  all  movable  goods,  the  produce  of  his  industry 
or  skill.  But  the  idea  of  accumulation  hardly  existed ; 
and  where  there  was  so  little  property,  violations  of  its 
rights  were  not  apt  to  be  frequent.  The  Indians  were 
generous,  because  they  were  thoughtless  and  careless  of 
the  future.  Those  who  had  food  were  always  ready  to 
share  it  with  the  hungry.  The  chiefs  especially  kept 
open  house,  and  in  that  way  maintained  their  popularity. 


ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS.  57 

There  was  no  division  of  labor  ;  each  family  did  every  CHAPTER 
thing  for  itself.  Buying  and  selling  between  members  _____ 
of  the  same  village  seem  to  have  been  almost  unknown. 
Even  between  different  tribes  the  exchange  of  commodi- 
ties was  very  limited.  In  a  few  articles  only,  of  which 
the  possession  or  production  was  peculiar  to  certain  con- 
federacies, an  incipient  commerce  seems  to  have  existed. 
The  tribes  along  the  sea-coast  were  found,  by  the  earliest 
navigators,  in  possession  of  plates  and  -ornaments  of  cop- 
per. These  articles  naturally  suggested  the  idea  of  mines 
in  the  neighborhood,  but  they  seem  to  have  been  derived 
by  barter  from  the  distant  and  unknown  shores  of  Lake 
Superior.  Some  of  the  tribes  on  the  coast  manufactur- 
ed, in  their  turn,  ornamental  beads  from  pieces  of  sea- 
shells  ;  and  these  beads,  wrought  into  belts,  were  diffus- 
ed, by  exchange,  through  the  distant  interior.  Peculiar 
kinds  of  clay  and  stone,  fit  for  pipes  and  other  implements, 
seem  also  to  have  been  articles  of  traffic. 

In  all  cases  of  violations  of  his  rights,  whether  of  per- 
son or  property,  each  Indian  relied,  in  the  first  place,  on 
his  own  strength  for  protection.  That  failing,  he  ap- 
plied to  his  chief,  who  thus  acted  occasionally  the  part 
of  judge,  and,  indeed,  of  executioner,  inflicting  with  his 
own  hand  the  sentences  he  decreed ;  sometimes  blows, 
and  sometimes  death.  If  the  culprit  were  formidable, 
some  trusty  warrior  was  deputed  to  take  him  off  by  a 
sudden  stroke.  It  was,  indeed,  the  necessity  of  protec- 
tion that  led  each  Indian  to  attach  himself  to  some  chief, 
and  each  petty  chief  to  some  superior  one ;  and  when 
protection  was  refused  or  injuries  inflicted,  they  did  not 
hesitate  to  transfer  themselves  to  some  abler  or  juster 
leader.  The  chiefs,  therefore,  though  guilty  of  occasional 
violences,  found  it  necessary  to  study  popularity,  and  to 
maintain  a  reputation  for  disinterestedness  and  justice. 


58  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  In  cases  of  homicide,  the  relations  of  the  slain  were  es 
'  teemed  bound  to  avenge  his  death,  though  sometimes, 
through  the  interference  of  the  chiefs  or  of  mutual  friends, 
they  were  persuaded  to  accept  a  ransom.  This  principle 
of  vengeance,  being  extended  to  the  intercourse  of  neigh- 
boring confederacies,  led  to  a  series  of  retaliations  end- 
ing in  furious  and  hereditary  hatreds,  and  leading  often 
to  perpetual  wars. 

War,  indeed,  was  esteemed  among  the  Indians,  as  it 
has  been  among  communities  far  more  civilized,  the  most 
honorable,  glorious,  and  worthy  of  employments.  The 
rank,  or  comparative  estimation  of  the  chiefs,  greatly  de- 
pended on  the  number  of  enemies  they  had  slain  in  bat- 
tle. This  warlike  spirit  was  little,  or  not  at  all,  stimu- 
lated by  hopes  of  conquest  or  plunder.  It  was  the  fury 
of  hatred  and  revenge,  the  restless  spirit  of  enterprise, 
still  more,  the  desire  of  honor  and  distinction,  that  stirred 
up  the  warriors  to  deeds  of  blood.  On  their  return  from 
a  successful  expedition,  they  expected  to  be  met  and  es- 
corted back  to  the  village  amid  the  plaudits  of  the  women 
and  children,  bearing  with  them  the  captives  taken,  and 
the  scalps  of  the  slain  stretched  on  poles — obscure  rudi- 
ments of  what  the  Romans  called  a  triumph. 

In  their  primitive  state,  pitched  battles  or  general  en- 
gagements were  unknown  among  the  Indians.  Surprise 
was  the  great  point  of  their  tactics.  As  the  warriors 
were  obliged  to  carry  their  provisions  on  their  backs,  or 
to  support  themselves  by  hunting,  their  war  parties  were 
seldom  numerous.  Yet  their  ardor  was  great.  To  reach 
some  distant  hostile  village,  they  crossed  mountains, 
swam  rivers,  and  endured  the  utmost  extremities  of  hun- 
ger and  fatigue.  But,  though  capable  of  momentary  ef- 
forts of  great  vigor,  these  children  of  impulse  had  not  the 
pertinacity,  nor  perseverance,  nor  fixed  purposes  of  civil- 


ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS.  59 

ized  life.     Bursts  of  passionate  activity  were  followed  by  CHAPTER 
long  intervals  of  indolence.     Until  they  learned  of  the__ 
white  man  to  make  war  on  a  larger  scale,  it  was  the  ut- 
most ambition  of  their  warriors  to  steal  into  the  enemy's 
country,  to  take  a  few  scalps,  and  to  make  a  few  prison- 
ers with  the  least  possible  loss  to  themselves ;  after  which 
they  long  remained  quiet,  unless  excited  by  some  retalia- 
tory inroad  or  some  fortuitous  encounter. 

In  the  first  fury  of  a  successful  attack,  the  women 
and  children  of  the  hostile  village  were  sometimes  indis- 
criminately massacred ;  but,  in  general,  their  lives  were 
spared,  and  they  were  received  by  adoption  into  the  fam- 
ilies of  their  captors.  The  hostile  warrior,  if  taken  pris- 
oner, was  reserved  for  a  horrid  death,  being  tortured  with 
all  the  ingenuity  of  savage  hatred,  and  burned  at  the 
stake  by  a  slow  fire.  The  women  and  children  joined  in 
these  torments,  and  the  flesh  of  the  victim  was  some- 
times eaten.  Such,  at  least,  was  the  custom  of  the  Iro- 
quois,  the  most  warlike  and  ferocious  of  all  the  North 
American  tribes ;  but  there  is  little  trace  of  such  cruel 
practices  among  the  Indians  of  the  Atlantic  coast.  It 
was  a  point  of  honor  with  the  dying  warrior  to  endure 
these  torments  without  the  slightest  flinching  or  indica- 
tion of  pain,  shouting  out  his  death-song  from  among  the 
flames,  and  taunting  with  his  latest  breath  the  unskill- 
fulness  of  his  tormentors.  Yet  even  in  the  midst  of 
these  horrors  humanity  sometimes  regained  dominion. 
Among  the  torturing  crowd  some  one  saw,  or  thought 
he  saw,  in  the  unhappy  victim  of  hate,  a  resemblance  to 
some  relative  who  had  perished  in  battle.  Claimed  to 
supply  the  place  of  that  relative,  the  prisoner  was  adopted 
on  the  spot  as  son  or  brother,  and  was  expected  to  evince 
his  gratitude  and  to  ratify  his  adoption  by  forgetting  for- 
ever his  native  tribe  and  all  his  former  connections. 


60  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER       Next  to  war,  it  was  thought  most  honorable  to  excel 
-  in  hunting  and  fishing.      These  pursuits,  chief  resources 

for  food  and  clothing,  were  followed,  each  in  its  season, 
with  patience,  assiduity,  and  no  little  skill.  The  Indians 
applied  all  their  sagacity  to  the  knowledge  of  wood-craft, 
which  they  carried  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection.  They 
could  trace  their  game  or  their  enemy  by  the  slightest 
indication — grass  bent,  leaves  trampled,  or  twigs  broken. 
Inferior  to  Europeans  in  strength  and  in  capacity  to  per- 
form regular  labor  to  which  they  were  unaccustomed, 
their  activity,  powers  of  endurance,  and  acuteness  of  sight 
and  hearing  were  extraordinary.  Guided  by  the  stars 
and  sun,  and  supported  by  a  little  parched  corn  pounded 
and  moistened  with  water,  they  performed,  with  unerring 
sagacity,  immense  journeys  through  the  woody  or  grassy 
wilderness.  The  habits  of  almost  all  the  tribes  were 
more  or  less  migratory.  They  knew  little  or  nothing  of 
the  comforts  of  a  settled  habitation.  They  seemed  al- 
ways uneasy,  always  on  the  point  of  going  somewhere 
else.  Their  frequent  journeys  had  traced,  in  many  places, 
trails  or  foot-paths  through  the  woods  or  across  the  prai- 
ries. It  was  their  custom  to  kindle  annual  fires,  by  which 
the  grass  and  underwood  were  consumed.  .Except  among 
the  swamps  and  rocky  hills,  the  forests  thus  acquired  an 
open  and  park-like  appearance. 

Trees,  remarkable  for  height  and  beauty  of  foliage, 
and  varying  in  species  with  every  variety  of  soil  and  cli- 
mate, overspread,  in  vast  forests,  all  the  eastern  portion 
of  North  America,  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  Hudson's 
Bay.  Beyond  the  mountains,  in  the  neighborhood  of 
the  Mississippi,  the  open  prairies  commenced,  and,  on 
the  western  side  of  that  river,  gradually  usurped  almost 
the  whole  country.  Besides  oaks,  and  pines,  and  other 
well-known  genera  of  Europe,  the  American  forests  con- 


ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS.  Q-± 

tained  many  trees,  and  a  great  variety  of  shrubs  and  CHAPTER 
plants,  entirely  new.  Even  such  as  seemed  most  fa.- 
miliar  to  visitors  from  Europe  were  specifically  different 
from  those  of  the  Old  World.  The  same  was  true  of 
birds,  fish,  and  forest  animals.  The  animated  nature  of 
North  America  was  peculiar  to  itself.  Beasts  of  prey, 
the  wolf,  and  several  varieties  of  the  cat  tribe,  were  few 
in  number  and  comparatively  diminutive  in  size  and 
strength.  The  black  bear,  a  favorite  article  of  food  with 
the  Indians,  could  hardly  be  reckoned  of  that  class.  It 
was,  however,  upon  several  varieties  of  the  deer  that  the 
tribes  of  the  forest  region  chiefly  depended  for  meat. 
The  more  northern  forests  seem  to  have  furnished  the 
best  hunting  grounds ;  it  was  there  only  that  the  moose 
and  the  elk  were  found.  These  northern  regions  abound- 
ed also  with  beaver  and  other  valuable  fur-bearing  ani- 
mals ;  but,  till  a  regular  trade  and  intercourse  were  open- 
ed with  Europeans,  these  animals  remained  comparatively 
undisturbed.  The  northern  rivers — those,  at  least,  of 
the  Atlantic  slope — annually  swarmed,  at  certain  seasons, 
with  salmon,  bass,  shad,  herring,  sturgeon.  The  north- 
ern lakes  were  also  full  of  fish.  The  shell-fish  of  the 
sea-coast  furnished  an  important  resource  to  some  tribes. 
Water-fowl  were  abundant ;  the  wild  turkey  traversed 
all  the  American  forests. 

The  vast  grassy  plains  of  central  North  America,  with 
their  immense  herds  of  bison,  or  buffalo,  might  seem  to  in- 
vite to  pastoral  life  ;  but  nothing  of  that  sort  was  known. 
Till  the  southwestern  tribes  obtained  horses  from  the 
Spaniards,  the  Indians  had  no  domestic  animals  except  a 
few  small  dogs.  Besides  hunting  and  fishing,  they  sup- 
ported themselves  in  part,  especially  the  more  southern 
confederacies,  among  whom  game  was  comparatively 
scarce,  by  cultivating  patches  of  maize  or  Indian  corn, 


62  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  that  remarkable  grain  so  widely  diffused,  in  many  varie 
'  ties,  over  the  whole  of  America,  though  nowhere  found 
in  a  wild  state.  They  cultivated,  also,  several  sorts  of 
beans  and  pease,  besides  squashes,  pumpkins,  water-mel 
ons,  and  a  number  of  edible  roots,  of  which,  among  the 
Southern  tribes,  the  sweet  potato  seems  to  have  been 
one.  They  had  orchards  of  native  plums  ;  and  wild  ber- 
ries, gathered  and  dried,  constituted  a  part  of  their  winter 
store.  Among  the  Southern  tribes  the  peach  was  early 
introduced,  and  the  apple  among  the  Northern.  Their 
agricultural  instruments  were  of  the  rudest  sort,  large 
shells,  flat  stones,  or  stakes  sharpened  by  fire.  They 
could  only  fell  trees  by  burning  round  them. 

The  labor  of  planting,  tending,  and  gathering  the 
crops  ;  preparing  skins  for  clothing,  which  they  did  with 
much  nicety ;  making  mats  and  baskets,  their  chief 
household  furniture  ;  carrying  burdens  during  their  jour- 
neys ;  in  fact,  all  the  drudgery,  fell  upon  the  women. 
Marriage  was  a  sort  of  purchase — the  father  receiving 
presents  from  the  husband  in  exchange  for  his  daughter, 
who,  after  a  few  months  of  fondling  and  favor,  sunk  to 
the  condition  of  a  domestic  servant.  Polygamy  was  not 
common  except  among  the  chiefs  ;  but  there  were  no  ob- 
jections to  it.  Every  Indian  had  as  many  wives  as  he 
could  pay  for  and  support.  It  was,  indeed,  the  labor  of 
their  wives  that  enabled  the  chiefs  to  maintain  the  hos- 
pitality proper  to  their  station.  The  Indian  husband  di- 
vorced his  wife  at  pleasure  ;  in  case  she  proved  unfaith- 
ful, he  might  put  her  to  death.  Unmarried  women 
might  follow,  with  little  reserve,  the  bent  of  their  incli- 
nation ;  but  the  Indians  of  both  sexes,  as  a  general  rule, 
were  remarkable  for  continence.  The  affection  of  the 
women  for  their  children  was  unbounded  ;  the1  fathers, 
also,  were  very  indulgent. 


ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS.  (j  3 

In  their  own  wigwams  the  natives  of  America  were  CHAPTER 

often  gay  and  jolly,  exhibiting  a  quick  sense  of  the  lu- L_ 

dicrous ;  but,  on  all  public  occasions,  and  in  presence 
of  strangers,  they  put  on  a  grave  and  reserved  appear- 
ance, which,  indeed,  their  solitary  habits  made  in  a  meas- 
ure habitual.  Pride  forbade  the  public  exhibition  of 
curiosity  or  emotion.  Though,  like  all  rude  men,  sub- 
ject to  violent  gusts  of  passion,  and  very  plain  of  speech, 
they  exercised  on  public  occasions  a  strict  command  over 
their  feelings,  and  often  practiced  in  their  social  inter- 
course, especially  with  strangers,  a  forbearance  and  po- 
liteness such  as  might  shame  more  civilized  communi- 
ties. Toward  strangers  their  hospitality  was  unbounded; 
and,  as  among  the  ancient  Greeks,  the  relation  of  host 
and  guest  possessed,  to  a  certain  extent,  a  sacred  char- 
acter. If  they  never  forgave  an  injury,  so  they  seldom 
forgot  a  benefit. 

It  was  not  alone  in  active  employments  that  the  men 
found  occupation.  Each  warrior  and  hunter  manufac- 
tured for  himself  his  weapons  and  his  implements :  his 
war  clubs  of  hard  and  heavy  wood,  wrought  and  orna- 
mented with  great  ingenuity ;  his  bows  shaped  and  pol- 
ished ;  his  arrows  pointed  with  flints,  shells,  or  sharp 
bones,  which  served  also  as  cutting  instruments.  A 
rude  clay  pottery,  able  to  stand  the  fire,  and  employed  to 
boil  their  food,  was  also  molded  by  the  men. 

The  canoes  of  the  northern  tribes,  made  of  the  bark 
of  the  white  birch,  neatly  sewed  together,  and  strength- 
ened by  an  interior  frame-work,  were  very  light,  and 
easily  transported  over  the  numerous  portages  where 
navigation  was  interrupted  by  rapids,  or  one  water  course 
separated  from  another  by  an  interval  of  land.  The  ca- 
noes of  the  more  southern  tribes  were  made  of  the  trunks 
of  trees  shaped  and  hollowed  by  fire 


(34  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER       Till  they  obtained  blankets  and  cloth  of  European 

traders,  the  clothing  of  the  Indians  was  very  scanty — 

little  more  than  a  skin  tied  about  the  loins.  They  made 
great  use  of  oil,  which  they  extracted  from  a  variety  of 
nuts,  applying  it,  like  so  many  other  nations,  as  an  un- 
guent, and  a  sort  of  substitute  for  clothing.  For  per- 
sonal decoration,  or  for  staining  their  skins  and  baskets, 
they  employed  bright  pigments,  the  juice  of  berries,  or 
colored  earths.  They  were  very  fond  of  dress  and  orna- 
ments, the  earliest  and  rudest  development  of  the  sen- 
timent of  the  beautiful,  and  gave  much  time  and  labor 
to  the  business  of  decoration,  a  luxury  reserved  chiefly 
for  the  men,  some  of  whom  were  great  fops.  Yet,  even 
in  this  personal  decoration,  a  higher  sentiment  developed 
itself.  Several  ornaments  most  esteemed,  the  feathers 
of  the  eagle,  the  claws  of  the  bear,  the  skins  of  the  more 
savage  animals,  the  hair  and  scalps  of  enemies  slain  in 
battle,  could  only  be  obtained  by  efforts  of  skill  or  cour- 
age, of  which  they  served,  indeed,  as  badges.  Personal 
neatness,  and  the  idea  of  cleanliness  and  order  in  their 
dwellings,  were  points  of  a  more  advanced  civilization  to 
which  the  Indians  had  not  attained. 

Though  active,  patient,  and  persevering  in  the  accom- 
plishment of  particular  objects,  the  general  foresight  of 
the  Indians  was  limited.  They  took  little  thought  or 
care  for  the  morrow,  and  often  suffered  excessively  for 
want  of  food.  They  were  fond  of  gluttonous  feasts,  in 
which  they  often  heedlessly  devoured  their  whole  winter's 
store.  Unlike  their  neighbors  of  Mexico  and  the  West 
Indies,  the  northern  tribes  had  no  knowledge,  in  their 
primitive  state,  of  any  intoxicating  drink.  They  found 
a  partial  substitute,  however,  in  tobacco,  which  they  cul- 
tivated with  care,  and  the  smoking  of  which  entered  into 
all  their  festivals  and  solemnities. 


ABORIGINAL   INHABITANTS.  55 

Their  amusements  were  dances  to  a  rude  sort  of  mu-  CHAPTER 
sic,  with  a  song  or  recitative,  and  having  a  pantomimic  ' 
and  dramatic  character,  in  which  a  certain  resemblance 
may  be  traced  to  what  we  are  told  of  the  origin  of  the 
Greek  and  Roman  drama.  Such,  especially,  was  the 
war  dance,  representing  a  whole  history  of  the  departure, 
the  exploits,  and  the  return  of  a  war  party.  They  ob- 
served, also,  certain  fasts  and  festivals  of  a  religious  char- 
acter. Some  of  the  tribes  had  a  great  wigwam,  a  rude 
sort  of  temple,  for  the  celebration  of  their  religious  cere- 
monies. The  young  men  were  often  initiated  into  man- 
hood by  cruel  rites,  intended  apparently  to  test  their 
powers  of  endurance.  They  practiced,  for  sport  and  ex- 
ercise, several  athletic  games,  among  which  foot-ball  was 
a  favorite.  They  had  also  games  of  chance,  and  were 
much  addicted  to  gambling. 

The  scanty  and  uncertain  supply  of  food,  and  more 
especially  the  hardships  and  severe  labors  to  which  the 
Indian  women  were  subjected,  contributed  to  keep  the 
population  in  check.  Few  exceeded  the  number  of  three 
or  four  children.  As  a  general  rule,  the  Indians  were 
not  long  lived.  Many  perished  prematurely  by  consump- 
tion and  fevers,  to  which  the  sudden  vicissitudes  of  the 
climate  and  their  habits  of  life  particularly  exposed  them. 
Toothache,  one  of  the  endemic  disorders  of  the  United 
States,  is  noticed  by  an  early  observer  as  a  very  com- 
mon affliction,  bringing  tears  into  the  eyes  of  the  stout- 
est warriors.  Whole  tribes  were  sometimes  swept  away 
by  famine  or  pestilential  disorders.  Europeans  intro- 
duced the  small-pox  and  other  diseases,  which  proved 
very  fatal. 

The  earlier  visitors  to  North  America  formed  very 
exaggerated  notions  of  the  number  of  the  native  inhabit- 
ants.    From  the  sea-coast,  back  to  the  falls  of  the  rivers, 
I.  E 


(>6  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  seems  to  have  been  by  far  the  most  populous  part  of  the 
______  continent.  This  district  had  a  resource  in  abundant  sup- 
plies of  fish,  for  the  most  part  wanting  in  the  interior. 
Great  tracts  among  and  beyond  the  mountains  seem 
to  have  been  destitute  of  resident  inhabitants,  serving 
as  occasional  hunting-grounds  for  distant  tribes.  The 
prairies  of  the  Far  West  did  not  originally  possess  those 
herds  of  wild  horses  which  have  added  so  much  to  the 
pleasure  and  the  power,  and  probably,  also,  to  the  num- 
bers of  the  Western  tribes.  The  most  powerful  confed- 
eracies, the  Iroquois  or  Five  Nations,  the  Cherokees,  the 
Creeks,  the  Choctaws,  the  Chippewas  of  Lake  Superior, 
never  could  boast  more  than  three,  four,  or  five  thousand 
warriors,  and  the  warriors  were  usually  reckoned  a  fourth 
part  of  the  whole  number.  From  the  more  accurate 
knowledge  we  possess  of  existing  tribes,  compared  with 
the  facts  stated  by  the  earlier  observers,  we  have  no  rea- 
son to  suppose  that  the  total  Indian  population  within 
the  territory  of  the  United  States  east  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  at  any  time  subsequent  to  the  discovery  of 
America,  exceeded,  if  indeed  it  even  reached,  three  hun- 
dred thousand  individuals. 

Such  was  the  state  of  the  aboriginal  population  when 
North  America  first  became  known  to  Europeans.  Yet 
there  exist  remarkable  proofs,  scattered  through  the  whole 
extent  of  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  of  the  former  oc- 
cupation of  that  region  by  a  far  more  numerous,  and,  in 
some  respects,  a  different  people.  These  memorials  con- 
sist of  embankments  of  earth  and  stone,  exhibiting  un- 
deniable evidences  of  design  and  labor,  sometimes  of  very 
great  extent.  Some  of  them,  along  the  brows  of  hills 
or  the  precipitous  edges  of  ravines,  inclosing  a  greater  or 
less  space  of  table  land,  were  evidently  intended  as  works 
of  defense.  Others,  still  more  numerous,  extensive,  and 


ABORIGINAL    INHABITANTS. 

elaborate,  seem  most  probably  to  have  been  connected  CHAPTER 
with  religious  ideas.  Occupying  often  the  fertile  bot- 
toms  at  the  junction  of  rivers  (sites  selected  for  towns 
by  the  present  inhabitants),  they  present  in  some  places 
curious  basso  relievos,  birds,  beasts,  reptiles,  and  even 
men ;  but  more  generally,  in  the  Valley  of  the  Ohio, 
inclosures  of  various  sorts,  often  curiously  complicated, 
perfect  circles  and  perfect  squares,  and  parallel  lines  of 
great  extent,  the  embankments  being  from  five  to  thirty 
feet  high,  and  the  inclosures  from  one  to  fifty,  and  often 
a  hundred  or  two  hundred,  and  sometimes  four  hundred 
acres  in  extent.  Other  classes  of  monuments,  often  con- 
nected with  those  just  mentioned,  but  often  separate,  and 
increasing  in  number  toward  the  south,  are  conical  and 
pyramidal  structures,  from  a  few  yards  to  a  thousand  or 
two  thousand  feet  in  diameter,  and  from  ten  to  ninety 
feet  high,  sometimes  terraced  like  the  Mexican  teocallis. 
Some  of  these  mounds  were  evidently  for  sepulchral  pur- 
poses, and  others  apparently  mounds  of  sacrifice.  Con- 
nected with  these  ancient  monuments  have  been  found 
remnants  of  pottery,  weapons  and  utensils  of  stone,  axes 
and  ornaments  of  copper,  but  nothing  which  affords  any 
decisive  evidence  of  a  state  of  civilization  superior  to 
that  of  the  present  Indians.  Yet  the  extent  and  num- 
ber of  these  earth-erections,  of  which  there  are  but  few 
traces  east  of  the  Alleganies — the  most  populous  region 
of  North  America  when  it  first  became  known  to  Euro- 
peans— evince  the  combined  labor  of  many  hands,  of  a 
sort  of  which  no  traces  appeared  among  the  tribes  found 
in  possession  by  Europeans. 

A  closer  examination  of  those  tribes  might  show  some 
striking  and  curious  peculiarities ;  but  the  institutions 
and  the  social  condition  of  all  the  aborigines  north  of  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  present  a  strong  general  resemblance  in 
extreme  simplicity  and  primitive  rudeness. 


68  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  Extending  our  glance  for  a  moment  to  the  rest  of  the 
'  new  world,  we  find  in  the  West  Indies,  and  throughout 
the  whole  wide  western  slope  of  South  America,  differ- 
ent languages  indeed,  and  some  differences  of  customs 
and  habits,  occasioned  by  differences  of  climate  and  natu- 
ral productions,  but  a  social  condition,  a  state  of  primi- 
tive ignorance  and  poverty,  and  on  the  continent  a  pau- 
city of  population,  the  same  with  that  of  the  northern 
tribes.  It  was  only  on  the  table  land  of  Mexico,  the 
isthmus  of  Central  America,  the  elevated  plateaus  of 
Bogota,  Quito,  and  Peru,  circumscribed  spots,  peculiarly 
favored  by  nature,  enjoying  most  of  the  advantages,  and 
escaping  many  of  the  inconveniences  of  both  the  torrid 
and  the  temperate  zones,  that  the  American  race  had 
made  any  onward  steps  in  the  career  of  civilization. 
Here  were  populous  communities,  supported  by  regular 
labors  of  agriculture ;  the  art  of  weaving  cotton  cloth ; 
the  employment  of  copper,  which  they  knew  how  to 
subject  to  a  peculiar  hardening  process,  as  a  substitute 
for  iron ;  the  knowledge  of  gold,  and  the  art  of  working 
it ;  the  mass  of  the  people,  as  in  so  many  Eastern  coun- 
tries, in  the  cpndition  of  serfs ;  a  nobility  ;  a  priesthood, 
not  without  learning ;  an  elaborate  mythology ;  archi- 
tecture on  a  gigantic  scale ;  large  cities ;  despotic  mon- 
archs  :  in  Mexico,  a  cruel  and  bloody  system,  over  which 
the  god  of  war  presided,  to  whom  was  offered  the  horri- 
ble but  consistent  worship  of  human  sacrifices  :  in  Peru, 
a  superstition  comparatively  mild,  and  a  government 
comparatively  paternal,  administered  by  the  Incas,  chil- 
dren of  the  Sun.  It  is  much  to  be  lamented  that  the 
jealous  fanaticism  of  the  early  Spanish  conquerors,  fol- 
lowed by  apathy  and  neglect  in  their  descendants,  has 
resulted  in  the  loss  of  memorials  which  might  have  en- 
abled us  more  accurately  to  estimate  the  character,  per- 


ABORIGINAL   INHABITANTS. 


69 


haps  to  trace  the  progress  of  this  aboriginal  American  CHAPTEK 
civilization,  which  seems,  indeed,  to  have  been  but  a  de-  ' 
velopment  of  the  ruder  system  of  the  other  tribes,  and 
still  bearing  many  traces  of  its  origin.  It  is  certain,  at 
all  events,  that  the  native  Mexicans  and  Peruvians,  who 
still  constitute  the  mass  of  the  population  in  those  coun- 
tries, are  of  the  same  race  or  type  with  our  North  Ameri- 
can Indians.  From  Patagonia  to  Hudson's  Bay,  the 
aboriginal  inhabitants  of  America  presented  a  resemblance 
sufficient  to  mark  them  as  a  separate  and  peculiar  race, 
and  obvious  to  the  most  careless  observer.  It  was  only 
about  the  Arctic  seas  that  a  departure  from  this  uniform 
type  was  observed ;  that  region  being  inhabited  by  the 
Esquimaux,  of  the  same  race  apparently  with  the  polar 
inhabitants  of  the  Eastern  continent.  A  similar  con- 
formity also  prevailed  as  to  all  the  animal  inhabitants 
of  that  region. 

When  the  aborigines  of  North  America  first  came  in 
contact  with  voyagers  from  Europe,  struck  with  their 
superiority  in  arts  and  knowledge,  they  inclined  to  re- 
gard them  as  supernatural  beings,  to  be  received  with 
unbounded  hospitality,  veneration,  and  confidence.  This 
trust  and  good  will  were  cruelly  repaid.  The  practice 
of  kidnapping  the  Indians,  to  sell  them  into  slavery,  as 
we  have  seen,  was  early  commenced — a  business  reg- 
ularly carried  on  for  the  benefit  of  the  Spanish  settle- 
ments in  the  West  Indies.  Nor  did  adventurers  of  other 
nations  hesitate  to  seize  the  unsuspecting  natives  as  tro- 
phies of  the  voyage,  or  to  serve  as  guides  for  future  ex- 
peditions. By  most  of  the  early  navigators,  to  murder 
the  natives  in  cold  blood,  upon  the  slightest  provocation, 
seems  to  have  been  thought  quite  a  matter  of  course. 
Can  we  wonder  that  confidence  was  soon  replaced  by  dis- 
trust and  hatred ;  that,  in  accordance  with  their  ideas, 


70  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  Indians  were  ready  to  revenge  the  wrongs  they  had 
-  -         suffered  upon  every  white  man  who  fell  into  their  power, 
and  that  hence  came  occasional  murders  and  massacres 
on  their  part  ? 

But  even  these  fears  and  antipathies  were  overcome 
by  the  attractions  of  traffic.  The  Europeans  were  ready 
to  barter  looking-glasses,  beads,  trinkets,  knives,  and 
hatchets  for  furs  and  skins.  This  trade  gradually  in- 
creased, and  the  use  of  articles  of  European  manufacture 
began  to  be  introduced  into  North  America,  and  the  prim- 
itive habits  of  the  natives  to  be  somewhat  modified  there- 
by, long  before  any  European  settlements  were  perma- 
nently established  on  the  coast. 


CAROLINA. 


CHAPTER    III. 

CAROLINA.     COLONY  OF  SAINT  AUGUSTINE.    NEW  MEXICO. 
VIRGINIA.    ACADIE.    NEW  FRANCE.    NEW  NETHERLAND. 

_LJURING  the  period  embraced  in  our  first  chapter,  that  CHAPTER 

great   religious   revolution  had  occurred  which   divided 

Western  Europe  into  the  two  hostile  and  violent  parties 
of  Protestants  and  Catholics — a  revolution  not  without 
very  important  influences  on  the  colonization  of  North 
America. 

The  first  attempt  at  a  lodgment  within  the  limits  of 
what  are  now  the  United  States,  with  colonization,  not 
conquest,  as  its  principal  object,  was  made  by  French 
Protestants  called  Huguenots,  who  constituted  at  that 
time  a  formidable  party,  embracing,  besides  a  large  body 
of  the  nobility,  no  small  portion  of  the  intelligent  and  in- 
dustrious class",  especially  in  the  south  of  France. 

The  plan  of  an  American  settlement  was  patronized  by 
the  Admiral  de  Coligny,  celebrated  in  French  history  as 
one  of  the  ablest  leaders  of  the  Protestants.     An  attempt-  1555— 
ed  settlement  in  Brazil  having  proved  a  failure,  John  Ri-     57. 
bault  was  presently  sent  with  two  ships  on  a  voyage  of  ex-  1562. 
ploration  to  Florida.     He  discovered  the  River  St.  John's,    May. 
which  he  named  the  River  of  May ;  and,  following  the 
coast  toward  the  north,  entered  a  spacious  inlet,  which 
he  called  Port  Royal,  a  name  it  has  ever  since  retained. 
On  an  island  in  this  harbor  he  built  a  fort  called  CARO- 
LINA, after  Charles  IX.,  then  king  of  France — a  name 
extended  afterward  to  the   circumjacent  territory,  and 
still  retained  by  two  of  the  United  States. 


72  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER       The  twenty-six  men  left  by  Ribault,  while  he  return- 

ed  for  supplies,  lonely  tenants  of  a  desolate  coast,  became 

1562.  discontented  and  uneasy,  notwithstanding  the  hospitality 
of  the  neighboring  Indians.  The  attempt  of  the  com- 
mandant to  repress  this  feeling  provoked  a  mutiny,  in 
which  he  was  killed.  With  such  materials  as  they  had, 
the  home-sick  colonists  built  and  rigged  a  small  bark,  in 
which  they  set  sail  for  France.  But  their  provisions 
failed,  and  they  were  reduced  to  the  terrible  expedient  of 
feeding  on  the  flesh  of  one  of  their  companions.  At  length 
they  were  picked  up  by  an  English  vessel,  some  of  them 
landed  on  the  coast  of  France,  and  the  others  carried  to 
England. 

Ribault,  on  his  return  to  France,  had  found  that  king- 
dom distracted  and  attention  occupied  by  civil  war,  then 
first  breaking  out  between  the  Huguenots  and  the  Cath- 
olics. Peace  was  presently  patched  up,  and  two  years 
1564.  after  the  scheme  of  settlement  was  renewed.  Three  ships, 
furnished  by  the  French  government,  were  placed  under 
the  command  of  Laudoniere,  one  of  Ribault's  compan- 
ions in  the  former  voyage.  Le  Moyne,  a  'draftsman  and 
painter,  whose  sketches,  made  upon  the  spot,  were  after- 
ward engraved  and  published,  accompanied  the  expedi- 
June.  tion.  Laudoniere  landed  his  people  at  the  River  of  May, 
where  he  built  a  fort,  called,  also,  Carolina.  But  these 
colonists,  like  their  predecessors,  were  an  unruly  set. 
Under  pretense  of  searching  for  provisions,  some  of  them 
seized  two  small  vessels  belonging  to  the  colony,  with 
which  they  sailed  to  cruise  against  the  Spaniards,  whose 
ships  from  Mexico  and  the  West  Indies  offered  tempt- 
ing prizes  to  freebooters.  They  took  two  or  three  small 
Spanish  vessels,  but  escaped  with  difficulty  from  a  superi- 
or force  at  Jamaica,  and  returned  to  Fort  Carolina,  where 
the  ring-leaders  were  tried  and  executed.  In  distress  for 


CAROLINA. 


73 


food,  of  which  their  store  was   consumed,  the  colonists  CHAPTER 

had  made   up  their  minds  to   abandon  the  settlement, . 

when  they  were  visited  by  Sir  John  Hawkins,  an  En-  1564. 
glish  adventurer,  on  his  way  home  from  the  Spanish  West 
Indies,  where  he  had  just  sold,  at  a  great  profit,  a  second 
cargo  of  slaves,  kidnapped  on  the  coast  of  Africa.  Haw- 
kins appears  to  have  been  the  first  Englishman  who  en- 
gaged in  this  detestable  traffic.  Moved  by  religious 
sympathy,  he  supplied  the  French  colonists  with  provi- 
sions, and  even  gave  them  a  vessel,  in  which  they  were 
just  about  to  embark  for  France,  when  Ribault  arrived,  August, 
bringing  with  him  a  recruit  of  colonists,  men,  women,  and 
children,  abundance  of  provisions,  and  a  supply  of  tools, 
seeds,  and  other  necessaries. 

But  Ribault  soon  found  himself  attacked  by  a  for- 
midable enemy.  This  French  settlement  of  Carolina 
was  an  intrusion  on  Florida,  as  claimed  by  the  Spaniards. 
The  French  colonists,  or  some  of  them,  had  taken  and 
plundered  two  Spanish  vessels.  They  were  heretics 
also ;  and  as  religious  sympathy  had  impelled  the  slave- 
trader  Hawkins  to  assist  them,  religious  antipathy 
aroused  Don  Pedro  Menendez  for  their  destruction. 
Like  so  many  other  Spanish  adventurers,  having  amass- 
ed a  fortune  in  America,  Menendez  was  disposed  to  spend 
it  on  new  enterprises,  and  he  had  lately  entered  into  an 
agreement  with  Philip  II.  for  the  conquest  and  occupa- 
tion of  Florida.  He  undertook  to  invade  that  country 
at  his  own  expense,  with  a  force  of  at  least  five  hundred 
men,  to  expel  the  French,  to  subdue  the  natives,  and  to 
establish  a  colony.  He  was  to  be  governor  for  life,  and, 
besides  an  annual  salary  chargeable  on  the  colonial  rev- 
enue, was  to  enjoy  certain  commercial  privileges,  and  to 
share  the  perquisites  appertaining  to  the  crown.  He  was 
also  to  receive,  as  his  private  property,  a  tract  of  land 


74  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  seventy-five  miles  square  in  the  immediate  neighborhood 

'       of  the  first  settlement.      At  least  five  hundred  colonists 

1564.  were  to  be  sent  out  at  once,  of  whom  not  less  than  one 

hundred  were  to  be  married  men.      Twelve  priests  were 

to  accompany  the  colony,  and  Menendez  was  to  supply 

it  with  five  hundred  negro  slaves. 

The  cry  of  "  Death  to  the  Huguenots"  gave  a  religious 
zest  to  this  enterprise.  Besides  three  hundred  soldiers 
furnished  by  the  king,  twenty-two  hundred  volunteers, 
priests,  sailors,  laborers,  mechanics,  women,  and  children, 
embarked  on  the  expedition  at  the  expense  of  Menendez. 
But  the  fleet  was  scattered  by  storms,  and  the  leader  ar- 
rived at  Porto  Rico  with  only  one  third  of  his  company. 
Without  waiting  for  the  rest,  he  sailed  at  once  for  Flor- 
ida, and  in  a  few  days  saw  its  low  and  dangerous  shore, 
swept  by  the  rapid  current  of  the  Gulf  Stream.  Keep- 
Sept,  i.  ing  to  the  north,  he  presently  entered  an  inlet  and  haven, 
which  he  called  St.  Augustine,  in  commemoration  of 
having  first  seen  the  land  two  days  before,  on  the  anni- 
versary of  that  saint.  Still  keeping  north  in  search  of 
the  French  settlement,  he  presently  discovered  Ribault's 
vessels,  recently  arrived  ;  but,  apprehensive  of  his  object, 
of  which  Ribault  had  received  some  intimation  before 
leaving  France,  they  cut  their  cables  and  put  to  sea. 
Menendez  then  returned  to  the  harbor  he  had  found, 
landed  his  colonists,  and,  having  taken  possession  of  the 
country  in  the  name  of  Philip  II.,  proceeded  to  mark  out 
a  city,  to  which  he  gave  also  the  name  of  St.  Augustine. 
That  city,  though  it  never  attained  any  considerable  pop- 
ulation, still  exists,  by  many  years  the  oldest  European 
town  in  the  United  States.  Built  of  stone  in  the  solid 
Spanish  fashion,  some  houses  are  still  standing,  reputed 
almost  coeval  with  its  foundation. 

Ribault  presently  collected  his  ships  and  sailed  to  at- 


COLONY  OF   ST.   AUGUSTINE.  75 

tack  the  Spaniards.  But  his  vessels,  overtaken  by  one  CHAPTER 
of  those  violent  storms  common  on  the  coast  at  that  sea-  ' 
son  of  the  year,  were  driven  to  the  southward  and  cast  1564. 
on  shore.  The  French,  in  their  fort  on  the  River  of 
May,  expected  to  be  attacked  by  sea.  But  Menendez 
marched  by  land  from  St.  Augustine,  and  took  them  en- 
tirely by  surprise.  A  bloody  massacre  ensued,  in  which, 
according  to  the  French  account,  not  the  men  only,  but 
even  women  and  children,  were  slain.  Laudoniere  and  a 
few  others  escaped  to  the  woods,  and  succeeded  in  get- 
ting on  board  two  small  vessels  which  Ribault  had  left 
behind  in  the  river.  It  was  not  as  Frenchmen,  but  as 
heretics,  that  the  colonists  had  been  massacred  ;  so,  ac- 
cording to  the  French  accounts,  Menendez  declared,  and 
to  commemorate  his  pious  zeal,  as  soon  as  the  carnage 
was  over,  a  cross  was  erected,  mass  was  said,  and  on  that 
same  bloody  spot  the  site  for  a  Christian  church  was 
marked  out,  the  first  within  the  limits  of  the  United 
States.  Such  of  the  French  as  had  escaped  from  the 
shipwrecked  vessels  were  presently  lured  into  the  hands 
of  the  Spaniards,  and  put  to  death  in  a  second  massacre. 
Ribault  was  among  the  number  ;  Laudoniere  and  his  few 
companions  succeeded  in  escaping  to  France. 

The  French  court,  itself  Catholic,  and  lately  at  open 
war  with  the  Huguenots,  paid  no  attention  to  a  suppli- 
catory letter  addressed  to  it  by  the  widows  and  orphans 
of  the  slain.  But  they  found  an  avenger  in  Dominic  de 
Gourges,  a  French  soldier  of  fortune,  who,  out  of  certain 
private  griefs  of  his  own,  entertained  a  bitter  hatred  of 
the  Spaniards.  By  the  sale  of  his  property  and  the  aid 
of  his  friends,  he  equipped  three  ships,  and,  with  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  men,  under  pretense  of  sailing  for  the  coast 
of  Guinea,  secretly  embarked  for  Florida.  He  surprised  1568. 
Fort  Carolina,  now  occupied  by  the  Spaniards,  took  it 


76  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  with  the  aid  of  the  Indians,  and  hanged  his  prisoners, 
with  this  inscription — "  Not  as  to  Spaniards  and  mari- 
1568.  ners,  but  as  to  robbers,  traitors,  and  murderers."  Sat- 
isfied with  this  exploit,  .which  made  him  an  object  of  bit- 
ter hatred  to  the  Spaniards,  De  Gourges  returned  to 
France,  where  civil  war  between  the  Protestants  and 
Catholics  was  again  raging.  This  war  continued,  with 
little  intermission,  for  thirty  years,  during  which  colo- 
nization in  America  seems  to  have  been  hardly  thought 
of.  But  the  merchants  of  Normandy  and  Brittany  still 
prosecuted  the  Newfoundland  fishery,  to  which  a  profit- 
able fur  trade  in  the  gulf  and  river  of  St.  Lawrence  be- 
gan presently  to  be  added. 

The  settlement  at  St.  Augustine  was;  by  more  than 
forty  years,  the  earliest  permanent  European  colony  on 
the  Atlantic  coast,  north  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  But 
the  narrow  principles  of  Spanish  colonial  policy,  estab- 
lishing every  where  a  perfect  despotism,  conspired  with 
a  sandy  and  barren  soil  to  keep  this  early  settlement 
poor  and  inconsiderable. 

1580.  Some  sixteen  years  after  the  foundation  of  St.  Au- 
gustine, an  addition  was  made  to  Spanish  knowledge  of 
America,  leading  presently  to  a  new  conquest  and  a  new 
settlement.    Augustin  Ruyz,  a  Franciscan  friar,  inflamed 
by  that  missionary  spirit  which  animated  the  Spanish 
ecclesiastics,  undertook  an  exploration  of  the  interior  re- 
gions north  of  Mexico.     He  set  out  from  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  mines  of  Santa  Barbara,  on  the  borders  of 
that  arid  desert  which  skirts  the  southeastern  foot  of  the 
Mexican  table  land,  and,  with  two  or  three  companions, 
penetrated  north  till  he  struck  the  middle  course  of  the 
Rio  Grande,  which  river  he  ascended  to  its  upper  valley, 
explored  forty  years  before  by  Vasquez  Coronado.     Ruyz 

1581.  was  followed,  the  next  year,  by  Antonio  de  Espejio,  with 


NEW  MEXICO. 


77 


a  body  of  soldiers  and  Indians.      He  completed  the  ex-  CHAPTER 
ploration,  and  gave  to  this  country  the  name  of  NEW 
MEXICO.      Santa  Fe  was  presently  built,  next  to  St.  1582. 
Augustine  the  oldest  town  in  the  United  States.      The 
Indian  inhabitants  of  that  remote  valley,  in  the  very 
heart  of  the  American  continent,  surrounded  on  all  sides 
by  rough  mountains  and  arid  deserts,  received  Spanish 
rulers   and  Spanish  teachers  cotemporaneously,  as  we 
shall  presently  see,  with  the  first  English  attempts  to 
colonize  the  Atlantic  coast. 

In  the  interval  since  the  discovery  of  America,  the 
foreign  commerce  and  navigation  of  England  had  made 
very  decided  progress.  The  English  merchants  even 
aspired  to  share  in  the  lucrative  traffic  of  the  East  In- 
dies, still  a  monopoly  in  the  hands  of  the  Portuguese. 
A  western  passage  to  India  not  having  been  found,  the 
idea  had  been  broached  of  a  northeastern  passage  through 
the  Arctic  Sea — an  enterprise  zealously  entered  into  by 
Sebastian  Cabot,  who  had  returned  to  England  in  his 
old  age,  and  had  been  rewarded  for  his  merits  and  former  1548. 
services  by  a  pension  from  the  crown.  An  English  ex- 
pedition, fitted  out  under  instructions  drawn  up  by  that  1549. 
veteran  navigator,  failed  indeed  of  its  main  object,  but 
one  of  the  vessels  entered  the  White  Sea  and  discovered 
the  port  of  Archangel,  thus  opening  Russia  to  maritime 
commerce.  The  Russians,  near  a  century  before,  had 
thrown  off  the  yoke  of  the  Mongols,  under  which  they 
had  long  been  crushed,  but  as  yet  they  were  hardly 
known  in  Western  Europe.  Presently  the  Russia  Com-  1566. 
pany  was  incorporated,  the  first  of  those  great  English 
trading  companies  which  have  played  so  conspicuous  a 
part  in  English  affairs,  and  several  of  which  were  largely 
concerned  in  the  colonization  of  North  America. 

The  hopes  of  a  northeastern  passage  thus  disappoint- 


78  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  ed,  the  search  for  a  northwest  passage  was  again  re- 
newed.      Martin  Frobisher,   with  this   object  in  view, 

1576.  penetrated  into  the  entrance  of  Hudson's  Bay.      A  stone 
from  that  desolate  region,  which  the  refiners  declared  to 
contain  gold,  excited  a  great  ferment  in  London,  and  led 

1577.  to  the  fitting  out  of  two  expeditions,  the  last  a  fleet  of 

1578.  fifteen  sail,  manned  by  many  high-born  volunteers,  who 
eagerly  adventured  to  search  for  mines  on  the  frozen 
coast  of  Labrador.      But  these  vessels  brought  home  only 
worthless  earth  mistaken  for  precious  ore. 

A  new  stimulus  and  a  wider  range  was  given  to  En- 
glish maritime  adventure  by  the  hostilities  already  com- 
mencing between  the  English  and  Spaniards.  Philip  II., 
the  wealthiest  and  most  powerful  monarch  of  that  age, 
lately  the  husband  of  Bloody  Mary,  was  the  champion 
of  the  Catholic  faith,  the  prince  to  whom  Mary  of  Scot- 
land and  the  Catholic  nobles  of  England  looked  for  sup- 
port. Elizabeth,  as  head  of  the  Protestant  party  in  Eu- 
rope, sent  secret  aid  to  the  revolted  Dutch  ;  and  though 
no  war  with  Spain  was  yet  formally  declared,  the  En- 
glish began  to  gratify  their  love  of  plunder,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  to  indulge  their  religious  antipathies,  by  pi- 
ratical expeditions,  undertaken  without  any  formal  com- 
missions, against  Spanish  commerce  and  the  Spanish 
American  colonies,  whose  wealth  in  gold  and  silver  mado 
them  the  admiration  and  envy  of  Europe. 

The  attention  of  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  a  gentleman 
of  Devonshire,  was  attracted  to  the  slower  but  more  cer- 
tain and  more  honest  wealth  derived  from  the  fisheries 
of  Newfoundland,  now  annually  visited  by  not  less  than 
a  hundred  and  fifty  French  vessels,  besides  as  many 
more  from  Spain,  Portugal,  and  England.  After  serv- 
ing with  credit  in  the  wars  of  France,  Ireland,  and  the 
Low  Countries,  Sir  Humphrey  had  turned  his  attention 


DISCOVERIES    BY   THE   ENGLISH.  79 

to  maritime  affairs,  and  had  published  a  treatise  on  the  CHAPTER 

northwest  passage  to  India.      Having  lost  much  money 

by  some  speculations  in  alchemy,  for  the  transmutation  1578. 
of  irbn  into  copper,  fashionable  in  that  age,  he  sought  to 
recruit  his  finances  by  acquiring  dominion  and  planting 
a  colony  in  America.  The  recent  dissolution  of  the 
English  monasteries  had  deprived  of  their  resources  a 
large  number  of  individuals,  accustomed  to  be  fed,  in 
whole  or  in  part,  by  the  bounty  of  those  institutions. 
The  first  compulsory  English  poor  law  had  been  lately 
enacted.  The  pressure  of  population  was  already  felt, 
and  there  was  likely  to  be  no  lack  of  colonists. 

Elizabeth  granted  a  patent  to  Gilbert,  conferring  rights  June  n. 
of  jurisdiction  and  exclusive  trade  over  a  circuit  of  six 
hundred  miles  "  not  actually  possessed  by  any  Christian 
prince  or  people,"  to  be  described  from  any  spot  as  a 
center  where  a  settlement  might  be  planted  within  six 
years. 

After  some   disappointments   and  delays,  Gilbert  at  1579 
length   put  to   sea ;    but   an   unsuccessful  engagement 
with  a  Spanish  squadron,  and  a  violent  storm,  in  which 
he  lost  one  of  his  ships,  compelled  him  to  return  with- 
out having  crossed  the  Atlantic. 

Meanwhile  the  celebrated  Sir  Francis  Drake,  with  a 
small  squadron  fitted  out  at  private  expense,  having  fol- 
lowed the  track  of  Magellan,  appeared  in  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  and  enriched  himself  and  his  company  by  plunder- 
ing the  Spanish  cities,  taken  wholly  by  surprise,  and  un- 
prepared for  such  an  attack.  In  hopes  of  discovering  the 
long-sought  western  passage  to  India,  and  for  himself 
some  shorter  course  into  the  Atlantic,  Drake  ran  along  1579 
the  western  coast  of  North  America,  which  he  called 
New  Albion,  the  same  region  to  which  the  previous 
Spanish  explorers  had  already  given  the  name  of  Call- 


80  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  fornia.     He  entered  the  bay  of  San  Francisco,  called  by 
the  English  after  his  name;  but,  disappointed  in  finding 

1580.  a  passage  to  the  eastward,  he  directed  his  course  to  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  whence  he  returned  to  England,  thus 
completing  the  second  circumnavigation  of  the  globe. 
Notwithstanding  the  loud  complaints  of  the  Spanish  em- 
bassador,  Drake  not  only  went  unpunished,  but  was 
favorably  received  at  court ;  and  hostilities  with  Spain 
now  became  open  and  flagrant. 

1583.  Just  before  the  expiration  of  the  six  years  limited  in 
his  patent,  Gilbert  undertook  a  second  voyage.  He 

August  reached  Newfoundland  with  three  ships,  and  found  in 
the  harbor  of  St.  John's  thirty-six  vessels  of  different  na- 
tions employed  in  the  fishery.  In  presence  of  the  crews, 
he  took  possession  of  the  island  in  the  name  of  Queen 
Elizabeth  ;  imposed  a  contribution  of  provisions  upon  the 
vessels  ;  made  grants  of  land,  with  a  reservation  of  rent 
to  himself;  declared  the  Church  of  England  to  be  the 
established  religion ;  and  the  attempting  any  thing 
against  the  queen's  title  to  be  treason.  He  then  set  sail 
for  the  continent ;  but,  as  he  approached  the  shore,  his 
largest  vessel  struck  a  shoal  or  ledge,  and  was  lost.  Dis- 
heartened at  this  accident,  the  other  two  ships  put  about 
and  steered  for  England,  but  that  which  carried  Gilbert 
foundered -on  the  passage. 

The  scheme  of  American  colonization  was  immediately 
taken  up  by  Walter  Raleigh,  Gilbert's  half  brother,  per- 
haps the  companion  of  his  first  voyage,  and  certainly  a 
partner  in  the  second — then  a  young  man  just  coming 
forward,  the  most  restless  and  ambitious,  as  he  was  the 
most  versatile  and  accomplished,  of  all  Elizabeth's  cour- 
tiers. Raleigh  easily  obtained  from  the  queen,  with 
whom  he  had  suddenly  become  a  great  favorite,  a  pat- 
ent nearly  in  the  terms  of  that  granted  to  Gilbert ;  but 


VIRGINIA.  Ql 

an  additional  clause,  suggested  doubtless  by  the  remon-  CHAPTER 
strances  of  the  merchants  engaged  in  the  Newfoundland         ' 
trade,  expressly  forbade  any  interference  with  the  fisher-  1584. 
men  there.     Placed  thus  under  the  necessity  of  selecting 
for  his  colony  a  more  southerly  latitude,  and  having  per- 
suaded several  others  to  unite  with  him  in  the  enterprise, 
Raleigh  dispatched  two  experienced  commanders,  Philip 
Amidas  and   Arthur  Barlow,  to  reconnoiter  the  coast. 

After  a  prosperous  voyage  by  way  of  the  Canaries 
and  the  West  Indies,  these  commanders  made  the  land 
in  the  vicinity  of  Cape  Fear.  Coasting  northeasterly  in 
search  of  a  harbor — not  easily  to  be  found  on  that  coast 
— they  reached  Ocracoke  Inlet,  and  landed  at  a  spot 
which  the  natives  called  Wococon,  the  point  of  a  long,  July  13. 
narrow  island,  which  separates  Pamlico  Sound  from  the 
Atlantic.  Here  they  were  soon  visited  by  the  Indians 
of  the  neighborhood,  who  received  them  with  hospitality, 
and  were  eager  to  trade.  By  their  invitation  the  vessels 
entered  the  sound,  and  visited  Roanoke,  a  low  and  sandy 
island  situate  in  the  passage  from  the  Sound  of  Pamlico 
to  that  of  Albemarle,  names,  however,  as  yet  unknown. 
At  this  island,  the  seat  of  an  Indian  village,  an  advanta- 
geous traffic  was  opened  with  the  natives,  who  feasted 
their  visitors  on  venison,  fish,  berries,  and  hominy — made 
of  Indian  corn  broken  and  boiled — a  dish  still  familiar 
throughout  the  Southern  States.  Two  of  the  tribe  even 
volunteered  to  visit  England. 

The  vigorous  vegetation  of  these  sandy  islands,  so 
much  in  contrast  with  the  stunted  growth  of  Newfound- 
land, concealed  the  poverty  of  the  soil.  The  stately  oaks, 
the  cedars,  cypresses,  pines,  bays,  magnolias,  and  other 
evergreens,  gave  a  deceptive  idea  of  great  fertility.  The 
ships  were  loaded  with  cedar,  to  which  were  added  skins 
and  furs  purchased  of  the  Indians,  and  sassafras,  which 
I.  F 


82  HISTORY    OF    THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  Spaniards  had  already  found  in  Florida,  and  intro- 
duced into  Europe  as  a  medicinal  and  precious  aromatic. 

1584.  The  explorers,  on  their  return,  made  a  flattering  report 
of  their  discoveries,  and  the  name  VIRGINIA  was  bestowed 
on  this  promising  region,  it  is  uncertain  whether  by  the 
virgin  queen  herself  or  by  the  dexterous  Raleigh. 

Raleigh  was  knighted,  his  patent  was  confirmed  by 

act  of  Parliament,  and,  according  to  the  queen's  fashion 

of  enriching  her  courtiers  by  the  gift  of  monopolies,  she 

Dec.     conferred  upon  him  the  exclusive  sale  of  sweet  wines, 

the  profits  of  which  might  aid  him  in  planting  a  colony. 

1585.  Thus  encouraged,  Raleigh  soon  fitted  out  seven  vessels 
April.    wen   furnished   with  every   requisite   for  a  settlement. 

Grenville,  a  successful  cruiser  against  the  Spaniards,  was 
naval  commander  ;  Lane,  knighted  subsequently  by 
Queen  Elizabeth  for  his  military  services,  was  to  be  gov- 
ernor ;  Hariot,  a  man  of  science,  was  appointed  to  inves- 
tigate the  native  productions  and  natural  history  of  the 
colony  ;  Wythe,  an  ingenious  painter,  went  as  drafts- 
man. With  all  the  expenses  of  this  expedition  on  his 
shoulders,  Raleigh  contributed  also  to  fit  out  his  friend 
Davis,  who  renewed,  about  this  time,  the  search  for  a 
northwest  passage  to  India,  and,  penetrating  toward  the 
polar  circle,  first  explored  the  entrance  into  Baffin's  Bay. 
Grenville  sailed  by  way  of  the  West  Indies,  where  he 
cruised  awhile  for  Spanish  prizes.  Following  the  coast 
of  Florida  toward  the  north,  he  narrowly  escaped  ship- 
June,  wreck  on  Cape  Fear,  which  now  first  received  that  om- 
inous name.  The  ships  reached  Wococon  in  safety,  but 
one  grounded  while  entering  the  sound.  The  colonists 
were  landed  on  the  Island  of  Roanoke.  Manteo,  one  of 
the  Indians  carried  to  England,  and  now  brought  back 
as  guide  and  interpreter,  was  sent  to  the  main  land  to 
announce  their  arrival.  The  Indians  were  still  friendly, 


COLONY   OF   ROANOKE.  §3 

and,  under  their  guidance,  the  shores  of  the  sound  were  CHAPTER 
explored  and  several  Indian  villages  were  visited.     Un-        t 
fortunately,  at  one  of  these  villages  a  silver  cup  was  sto-  1585. 
len  ;   Grenville  returned  to  demand  it,  and,  when  its  res- 
toration was  evaded  or  delayed,  with  the  reckless  violence 
characteristic  of  the  adventurers  of  that  age,  and,  indeed,- 
of  most  voyagers  among  savage  nations,  he  burned  the 
village  and  destroyed  the  standing  corn.      Having  for- 
feited, by  this  rash  and  hasty  act,  the  good  will  of  the 
Indians,  so  essential  to  the  infant  colony,  Grenville  pres- 
ently sailed  on  his  return  voyage.     On  his  way  home 
he  captured  a  rich  Spanish  prize.      The  plunder  of  the 
Spaniards  seems  indeed  to  have  attracted  more  of  his  at- 
tention than  the  settlement  of  the  colony. 

Left  behind  with  an  hundred  and  ten  men,  Lane  em- 
ployed himself  in  exploring  the  neighborhood.  In  a 
southwest  direction  he  penetrated  as  far  as  Secotan,  an 
Indian  town  between  the  Pamlico  and  the  Neuse.  In 
the  district  north  of  Albemarle  Sound  he  found  the  tribe 
of  the  Chesapeakes,  from  whom  he  obtained  some  vague 
account  of  the  great  bay,  still  known  by  their  name. 
He  also  examined  the  western  extremity  of  the  sound, 
and  ascended  the  Chowan  as  high  as  the  junction  of  its 
two  principal  branches.  The  River  Roanoke  attracted 
his  attention  ;  the  Indian  chief  of  that  neighborhood,  anx- 
ious, perhaps,  to  get  rid  of  these  intruders,  told  a  marvel- 
ous tale,  suggested,  no  doubt,  by  the  questions  put  to 
him,  of  a  pearl  fishery,  a  gold  mine,  and  a  western  ocean 
— so  at  least  his  story  was  interpreted — near  the  shores 
of  which  the  River  Roanoke  had  its  rise.  The  Spanish 
pearl  fishery  at  the  Island  of  Margarita,  on  the  south- 
ern coast  of  the  Caribbean  Sea,  and  the  gold  and  silver 
of  the  Spanish  colonies,  encouraged  all  the  adventurers 
of  that  day  with  the  hope  of  similar  discoveries  every 


$4  HISTORY   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  where  in  America.     Commerce  on  the  great  scale  of  the 
present  times  was  still  unknown.      So  far  as  the  inter- 

1585.  course  of  distant  nations  was  concerned,  trade  was  lim- 
ited to  a  few  articles  of  rare  and  precious  character. 
It  was  articles  of  that  sort  which  made  the  commerce 
to  India  seem  so  great  an  object,  and  the  discovery  of  a 
western  passage  thither  so  important.      Seduced  by  de- 
lusive tales  which  seemed  to  him  sufficiently  credible, 

1586.  Lane  attempted  to  ascend  the  Roanoke  ;  nor  did  he  give 
March.  oyer  ^  enterprise  till  he  and  his  companions  had  nearly 

perished  with  hunger. 

As  summer  approached,  the  stores  of  the  Indians 
were  exhausted,  and  because  they  omitted  to  re-plant 
their  corn-fields  in  the  Island  of  Roanoke,  they  were 
accused  of  a  treacherous  design  to  starve  out  the  colo- 
nists. A  leading  chief  of  that  district,  suspected  of  a 
Tune,  plot  to  murder  the  English,  was  drawn  into  an  ambush 
under  pretense  of  a  parley,  and  treacherously  slain,  with 
eight  of  his  warriors.  The  scarcity  of  provisions  hav- 
ing obliged  the  colonists  to  disperse  in  search  of  food,  a 
small  party  on  Cape  Look-out,  much  to  their  surprise, 
descried  at  sea  a  fleet  of  twenty-three  sail.  It  was  Sir 
Francis  Drake,  on  his  way  home  from  a  new  plundering 
expedition,  in  the  course  of  which  he  had  levied  contri- 
butions on  Carthagena,  St.  Domingo,  and  the  little  town 
of  St.  Augustine  in  Florida.  Aware  of  the  existence  of 
Raleigh's  colony,  he  had  followed  the  shore  in  hopes  of 
discovering  it.  The  signals  waved  from  Cape  Look-out 
were  presently  seen,  and  Drake  opened  a  communication 
with  Lane,  and  gave  him  a  ship,  a  pinnace,  and  several 
boats,  with  a  supply  of  provisions.  He  also  persuaded 
two  of  his  captains  to  remain  in  the  colony.  But  a  sud- 
den storm  arose,  against  which  the  open  roadstead  where 
Drake's  vessels  lay  at  anchor  afforded  no  protection.  To 


CITY   OF    RALEIGH.  35 

escape  shipwreck,  they  put  to  sea ;  and  the  vessels  set  CHAPTER 
aside  for  the  colony  were  driven  off  the  coast.  ' 

Lane  and  his  companions  were  now  totally  discour-  1586. 
aged.  They  declined  to  accept  Drake's  offer  of  another 
vessel,  and,  embarking  on  board  the  fleet,  set  sail  for  En-  June  19. 
gland.  Hardly  were  they  gone  when  a  ship,  dispatched 
by  Raleigh,  with  abundant  supplies,  arrived  at  Roanoke, 
and  a  fortnight  after  came  Grenville  wfth  three  more 
ships.  Having  searched  in  vain  for  the  departed  colo- 
nists, Grenville  left  fifteen  men  to  retain  possession. 
On  his  way  home  he  plundered  the  Azores,  a  Portuguese 
settlement — the  Portuguese  and  Spanish  crowns,  with 
the  vast  colonial  empire  appertaining  to  them,  being 
now  united  on  the  head  of  Philip  II.,  who  claimed  the 
Portuguese  crown  by  inheritance,  and  held  it  in  spite 
of  the  wishes  of  the  people. 

The  failure  of  Lane's  colony  did  not  deter  Raleigh  from 
a  second  experiment ;  and  he  found  others  ready  to  join 
him  in  it.  To  give  the  settlers  a  feeling  of  home,  and 
to  make  them  willing  to  remain,  it  was  wisely  determ- 
ined to  send  out,  not  single  men  only,  but  families  hav- 
ing a  personal  interest  in  the  enterprise.  A  company 
was  formed,  and  a  charter  was  granted  to  John  White  1587, 
and  eleven  others,  as  governor  and  assistants  of  the  "  city  Jannai7- 
of  Raleigh,"  in  Virginia.  Such  was  the  designation  of 
the  new  colony,  designed  to  be  planted  in  Chesapeake 
Bay,  of  which  some  vague  idea  had  been  obtained  by 
Lane  in  his  intercourse  with  the  Indians.  But  the  com- 
mander of  the  ships  in  which  these  adventurers  sailed 
was  in  haste  to  depart  for  the  West  Indies,  where  he 
hoped  to  enrich  himself  by  trade  or  Spanish  prizes,  and, 
refusing  to  spend  time  in  explorations,  he  pat  the  new 
colonists  ashore  at  Roanoke.  The  booses  of  the  former  July, 
company  were  found  standing,  bat  deserted,  and  over- 


86  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  grown  with  vines   and  weeds.      A  human  skeleton  lay 
'      whitening  on  the  ground.     Nothing  appeared  of  the  fif- 

1587.  teen  men  left  by  Grenville.     The  new  comers  were  pres- 
ently visited  by  Manteo,  the  Indian  interpreter,  who  told 
them  that  the  fifteen  men  had  been  slain  by  some  of  the 
neighboring  Indians,  of  whose  hostility  a  new  proof  was 
presently  experienced  in  the  slaughter  of  one  of  the  as- 
sistants, who  had  strolled  a  little  distance  from  the  fort. 
In  haste  for  revenge,  the  colonists  attacked  an  Indian 
party  by  night,  and  had  slain  several  before  they  discov- 
ered in  these  supposed  enemies  a  friendly  band.      When 

August,  the  time  came  for  the  departure  of  the  vessels,  White, 
the  governor,  was  urged  to  go  to  England  to  secure  and 
hasten  the  promised  supplies.  He  left  behind  eighty- 
nine  men,  seventeen  women,  and  eleven  children,  among 
whom  was  an  infant  grand-daughter  of  his  own,  Vir- 
ginia Dare,  the  first  English  child  born  in  America. 

When  White  arrived  in  England  he  found  the  nation 
in  universal  excitement  and  alarm.  The  hostilities  so 
long  carried  on  against  the  Spaniards  had  produced,  at 
last,  a  crisis.  Provoked  beyond  endurance  by  the  expe- 
ditions of  Drake,  the  execution  of  Mary  of  Scotland,  and 
the  aid  still  afforded  to  the  revolted  Dutch,  who  had  even 
chosen  Leicester,  Elizabeth's  favorite,  as  their  governor 
general,  Philip  II.  undertook  to  carry  into  effect  a  sen- 
tence of  the  pope  excommunicating  and  deposing  the 
English  queen,  proclaiming  a  crusade  against  her,  and 
giving  her  kingdom  to  any  Catholic  prince  who  would 

1588.  undertake  to  drive  her  from  it.     A  great  armament  was 
preparing  in  the  ports  of  Spain,  Portugal,  and  the  Low 
Countries,  for  the  invasion  of  England.     Notwithstand- 
ing the  terrors  of  this  threatened  invasion,  Raleigh  fitted 

April,    out  White  with  two  ships ;   but,  stopping  to  cruise  for 
Spanish  prizes,  one  of  these  vessels,  after  a  bloody  en- 


CITY  OF  RALEIGH.  37 

gagement,  was  itself  boarded  and  rifled,  and  both  were  CHAPTER 
compelled  to  return.     Other  vessels,  fitted  out  for  the         ' 
same   purpose,   were   pressed   into   the  public   service  ;  1588. 
White  himself  was  so  employed ;  and,  for  the  moment, 
the  colony  was  neglected  and  forgotten. 

Raleigh  had  already  spent  £40,000  ($190,000)  on 
this  fruitless  enterprise,  and,  too  much  impoverished  to 
go  on,  he  made  an  assignment  under  his  patent  to  a  com-  1589. 
pany,  of  which  Thomas  Smith,  a  merchant  of  London,  March  7 
and  White,  already  mentioned,  were  principal  mem- 
bers. Some  delay  occurred  in  sending  out  assistance ;  1590. 
but  White,  by  the  interest  of  Raleigh,  presently  ob- 
tained for  three  ships  bound  to  the  West  Indies  an  ex- 
emption from  an  embargo  which  the  queen  had  just  laid, 
on  condition  that  these  ships  should  take  out  men  and 
supplies  for  the  colony  at  Roanoke.  This  condition  was 
not  very  faithfully  observed ;  only  White  was  taken  on 
board,  and  the  ships  remained  so  long  cruising  in  the 
West  Indies  that  it  was  the  autumnal  stormy  season  be- 
fore they  arrived  on  the  Virginia  coast.  None  of  the 
colonists  were  any  where  to  be  found.  The  site  of  the 
settlement  at  Roanoke  was  inclosed  by  a  strong  palisade, 
but  broken  articles  scattered  about  suggested  the  idea  of 
violence  and  plunder.  From  an  inscription  carved  on  a 
tree,  it  was  supposed  that  the  colonists  might  have  gone 
to  Croatan,  an  island  in  the  neighborhood ;  but,  before 
search  could  be  made,  a  storm  arose,  and  the  masters  of 
the  vessels,  afraid  to  remain  longer  on  so  dangerous  a 
coast,  hastily  set  sail  for  England.  Nor  was  any  thing 
further  ever  heard  of  this  unfortunate  colony,  the  fate 
of  which  excited  not  a  little  commiseration. 

The  company  to  which  Raleigh  had  made  his  assign- 
ment was  content  with  occasionally  sending  a  trading  ves- 
sel to  the  coast.  Among  its  members  was  Richard  Hak- 


88  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  luyt,  a  prebend  of  Westminster,  who  took  a  great  inter- 
est.  in  the  general  subject  of  maritime  adventure,  and 
1590.  especially  of  American  discovery,  and  who  had  just  com- 
menced the  publication  of  a  valuable  collection  of  voy- 
ages. Through  his  interest,  the  sketches  made  by  Wythe 
were  delivered  to  De  Bry,  an  enterprising  German  en- 
graver and  bookseller,  by  whom  they  were  published  in 
four  separate  editions,  with  an  English,  French,  German, 
and  Latin  text — thus  first  exhibiting  to  the  eyes  of  Eu- 
rope the  figures,  dresses,  and  customs  of  the  North  Amer- 
ican natives.  De  Bry  also  obtained  and  published  the 
sketches  of  the  painter  Le  Moyne,  who  had  accompanied 
the  ill-starred  Huguenot  expedition  to  Florida. 

Raleigh's  attempt  to  colonize  Virginia  has  been  com- 
monly assigned  as  the  era  of  the  introduction  of  tobacco 
into  England.  Very  soon  after  the  discovery  of  Ameri- 
ca, the  Spaniards  had  learned  the  luxury  of  that  nar- 
cotic. Through  the  Moors  of  Spain,  its  use  very  soon 
spread  to  the  Mohammedan  nations  of  the  East,  among 
whom  it  seems  to  have  become  a  great  favorite  long  be- 
fore it  was  much  known  in  Europe.  Commerce  with 
Spain,  or,  perhaps,  trading  and  privateering  expeditions 
against  the  Spanish  American  settlements,  first  brought 
tobacco  to  England  ;  but  it  does  not  appear  to  have  at- 
tracted much  attention  till  Raleigh  made  it  fashionable. 
Lane's  companions,  who  had  learned  from  the  Indians 
the  practice  of  smoking  it,  brought  home  a  quantity 
with  them,  and,  under  the  impulse  of  Raleigh's  exam- 
ple, smoking,  or  "  drinking"  tobacco,  as  it  was  then 
called,  became  the  fashion  among  the  courtiers.  Its 
exhilarating  and  soothing  effects  were  obvious ;  it  was 
imagined,  also,  to  possess  great  medicinal  virtues.  Its 
use  gradually  spread,  the  physicians,  the  Puritans,  and 
presently  King  James,  opposing  it  in  vain.  In  the  course 


FRENCH   FUR  TRADE.  %      39 

of  the  twenty  or  thirty  years  following,  tobacco  began  CHAPTER 
to  be  a  considerable  article  of  commerce,  and  its  use  was         ' 
not  without  a  perceptible  influence  upon  American  colo-  1590. 
nization. 

It  has  often  been  asserted  that  these  same  colonists 
introduced  the  potato  into  England ;  but  that  must  be  a 
mistake.  The  history  of  the  potato  is  somewhat  obscure. 
It  seems  to  have  been  derived  from  the  cold  plateaus  of 
Peru.  It  was  certainly  known  in  Italy  years  before  the 
planting  of  Roanoke.  Among  the  vegetables  described  by 
Hariot  as  the  produce  of  Virginia,  there  is  none  which  can 
be  taken  for  the  potato — a  root  never  cultivated  by  the 
North  American  Indians,  and  nowhere  indigenous  in 
North  America,  unless  possibly  somewhere  in  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  The  mistake  appears  to  have  arisen  from 
confounding  this  root  with  the  batata,  or  sweet  potato, 
which  seems,  indeed,  to  have  been  known  and  cultivated 
by  the  Indians  of  Virginia  and  Florida,  and  specimens 
of  which  Lane  might  have  carried  to  England.  These 
two  roots,  indeed,  were  long  confounded  by  the  English, 
who  applied  the  name  batata  to  both ;  indeed,  a  mistaken 
idea  still  prevails  in  the  English  colonies  that  they  are 
the  same  plant,  varied  only  by  change  of  climate.  It 
was  not  till  the  middle  of  the  lastf  century  that  the  potato 
began  to  be  extensively  cultivated  as  an  article  of  food. 

After  years  of  blood  and  confusion  in  France,  occa- 
sioned by  the  civil  war  between  the  Catholics  and  Prot- 
estants, peace  was  once  more  restored  to  that  country 
by  the  reconciliation  of  Henry  IV.  to  the  pope,  and  the  1595. 
publication  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  by  which  the  Hugue-  1598 
nots  were  secured  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  civil  rights 
and  religious  opinions.     Under  the  administration  of  the 
judicious   Sully,  commerce  revived.     Even  during  the 
wars,  a  valuable  fur  trade  to  the  American  coast  had  been 


90  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  gradually  established.  The  northern  regions,  abounding 
in  furs,  seemed  of  greater  commercial  value  than  the 
1598.  country  further  south ;  and  the  Marquis  de  la  Roche,  a 
nobleman  of  Brittany,  presently  obtained  a  commission 
to  conquer  CANADA,  and  other  adjacent  countries  "  not 
possessed  by  any  Christian  prince." 

To  find  men  for  this  enterprise,  La  Roche  was  author- 
ized, as  Robertval  had  been,  to  sweep  the  jails.  A  col- 
ony of  forty  convicts  was  established  on  the  miserable 
Island  of  Sables,  some  of  whom  remained  seven  years  on 
that  inhospitable  sand-bank,  subsisting  on  fish,  and  clothed 
in  seal-skins. 

On  the  death  of  La  Roche,  Chauvin,  a  naval  officer, 

1600.  obtained  a  similar  commission.     He  formed  a  connection 
with  Pontgrave,  a  merchant  of  St.  Malo,  who  for  years 
had  been  concerned  in  the  fur  trade,  making  profitable 
voyages  to  Tadousac,  at  the  entrance  of  the  Saguenay 

1601.  into  the  St.  Lawrence.      Chauvin  died  a  year  or  two 
after,  when  M.  de  Chatte,  governor  of  Dieppe,  obtained 
a  commission  as  governor  of  Canada,  and,  in  conjunction 
with  Pontgrave,  formed  a  company  of  merchants  to  carry 
on  the  traffic.      The  name  Canada  was  originally  con- 
fined to  the  district  on  the  south  bank  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence, opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Saguenay,  but  was  ulti- 
mately extended  so  as  to  include  the  whole  interior  ter- 
ritory watered  by  the  St.  Lawrence  and  its  tributaries. 

A  few  English  vessels  visited,  meanwhile,  the  coast  of 
Virginia,  principally  in  search  of  sassafras,  then  becoming 
fashionable  as  a  medicinal  drug.  Hitherto,  ships  bound 
on  that  voyage  had  taken  a  roundabout  course  by  the 

1602.  West  Indies ;   Bartholomew  Gosnold,  master  of  a  small 
vessel  in  the  employ  of  Raleigh's  assignees,  avoided  that 
unnecessary  circuit.      Pursuing   a  more   direct   course, 
in  seven  weeks  he  made  land,  far  to  the  north  of  Roa- 


NORTH    VIRGINIA. 


91 


noke.      Turning   southward,   he  discovered,   landed   on,  CHAPTER 
and  named  Cape  Cod.     Keeping  still  to  the  south  ward  _____ 
and  then  to  the  westward,  he  passed  the  islands  now  1602. 
known  as  Nantucket  and  Martha's  Vineyard,  but  prefer-  ^a?  12- 
red  to  land  on  the  westernmost  of  the  little  group  of  the 
Elizabeth  Islands,  to  one  of  which  he  first  gave  that 
name.      On  a  rocky  islet  in  the  midst  of  a  pond  he  built 
a  fort  and  store-house,  intending  to  leave  a  few  men  to 
keep  possession.     The  lading  of  the  ship  was  soon  com- 
pleted, principally  with  sassafras  gathered  on  the  island, 
to  which  were  added  furs  purchased  on  the  main  land  of 
the  Indians,  with  whom  a  friendly  intercourse  was  opened. 
When  the  ship  was  laden  and  ready  to  sail,  those  who 
were  to  remain  lost  heart ;   all  embarked,  and  a  prosper- 
ous voyage  of  five  weeks  carried  them  to  England. 

The  coasts  and  islands  visited  by  Gosnold  were  not  re- 
markable for  fertility  ;  but  that  navigator,  having  seen 
them  in  all  the  fresh  verdure  of  June,  gave  a  very  flat- 
tering account  of  his  discoveries,  and,  at  the  instance  of 
Hakluyt,  some  merchants  of  Bristol  sent  two  vessels,  un- 
der Martin  Pring,  to  collect  sassafras  and  to  pursue  the 
exploration.  Pring  entered  Penobscot  Bay,  and,  coast-  1603. 
ing  southerly,  discovered  the  harbors  of  Kennebunk,  Aga-  June* 
menticus,  and  Piscataqua,  whence  he  traced  the  coast 
as  far  south  as  Martha's  Vineyard.  One  ship  was  laden 
with  sassafras,  the  other  with  furs  and  skins  purchased 
from  the  natives.  The  pecuniary  results  of  this  voyage 
proved  very  satisfactory  to  the  undertakers. 

During  these  explorations  by  Gosnold  and  Pring,  Pont- 
grave,  in  the  employ  of  the  French  company  to  which 
he  belonged,  made  a  new  voyage  to  the  St.  Lawrence, 
having  as  a  companion  Samuel  Champlain,  afterward 
for  many  years  governor  of  Canada.  They  ascended 
as  high  as  Hochalaga ;  but  the  Indian  village  which 


92  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  Cartier  had  found  on  that  island  was  no  longer  in  ex- 

m. 
.  istence. 

1603.  Returning  to  France,  they  found  De  Chatte  dead,  and 
a  patent  or  commission  issued  to  Pierre  de  Gast,  Sieur 
de  Monts,  a  Protestant  gentleman  of  the  king's  bed-cham- 
ber, for  a  vast  tract  called  ACADIE,  including  the  whole  of 
North  America  between  the  fortieth  and  forty-sixth  de- 
gree of  north  latitude,  from  a  point,  that  is,  south  of  New 
York,  as  far  northerly  as  Cape  Breton.      A  monopoly  of 
the  fur  trade  within  these  vast  limits  was  also  secured. 

1604.  Four  ships  were  soon  fitted  out  by  a  company  which  De 
Monts  formed ;   one  under  Pontgrave,  to  drive  away'  in- 
terloping traders ;   another,  to  purchase  furs  in  the  St. 
Lawrence  ;  and  two  others,  commanded  by  De  Monts  in 
person,  attended  by  Champlain  and  Poutrincourt,  to  se- 
lect a  site  and  to  establish  a  colony.     These  two  vessels 
touched  first  at  La  Have,  a  short  distance  south  of  the 
present  town  of  Halifax,  a  harbor  already  known  and 
frequented  by  the  French  fur  traders.      Following  the 
shore  to  the  southward,  they  doubled  Cape  Sable,  and, 
tracing  the  coast  to  the  northeast,  they  discovered  and 
entered  a  beautiful  harbor,  surrounded  by  hills,  and  bor- 
dered by  fertile  meadows.      Poutrincourt  begged  and  ob- 
tained of  De  Monts  a  grant  of  this  harbor,  which  he  called 
Port  Royal,  now  Annapolis.     While  De  Monts  followed 
the  coast  to  the  northeast  to  find  an  imaginary  copper 
mine,  Champlain,  in  search  of  a  fit  spot  for  settlement, 
explored  the  Bay  of  Fundy^  discovered  and  named  the 
River  St.  John's,  entered  Passamaquoddy  Bay,  and,  as- 
cending to  the  mouth  of  its  tributary,  the  Schoodic,  se- 
lected there  for  settlement  a  small  island,  which  he  called 
St.  Croix,  a  name  presently  given  to  the  river  itself. 
He  was  joined  by  De  Monts,  the  colony  was  landed,  and 
a  fort  was  built.     But  the  site  was  ill  chosen.     Confined 


NORTH    VIRGINIA.  93 

to  a  small  island,  the  settlers  suffered  much  during  the  CHAPTER 
winter  for  wood,  water,  and  provisions,  and  half  the  num-  ' 
ber  died.  De  Monts  set  sail  in  the  spring  in  search  of  a  1605. 
better  situation.  He  looked  into  the  Penobscot,  which 
Pring  had  discovered  two  years  before,  entered  the  Ken- 
nebecj  Casco  Bay,  and  the  Saco ;  and,  following  the 
track  of  Pring,  examined  the  coast  as  far  south  as  Cape 
Cod,  which  he  called  Malabarre.  He  landed  on  the 
cape,  and  had  some  thought  of  removing  his  colony 
thither,  but  was  discouraged  by  the  hostility  of  the  na- 
tives. Additional  settlers  having  arrived  from  France, 
he  presently  transferred  his  settlement  from  St.  Croix  to 
Port  Royal.  But  even  that  situation  was  not  wholly 
satisfactory,  and  Poutrincourt  undertook,  the  next  sum-  1606 
mer,  a  further  exploration  of  the  shores  of  Cape  Cod. 
The  natives,  however,  were  still  hostile ;  some  of  the 
French  were  slain ;  and  it  appeared  dangerous  to  attempt 
the  occupation  of  that  coast.  The  complaints  of  the 
French  fishermen  and  fur  traders  had  procured,  mean- 
while, the  recall  of  De  Monts's  commission  ;  and,  during 
the  following  winter,  even  Port  Royal  was  deserted. 

The  commerce  with  India,  so  long  coveted,  had  at 
length  been  commenced  by  the  English  and  Dutch,  whose 
East  India  Companies,  presently  so  famous,  had  just  been  1600. 
incorporated.     The  hopes  of  a  short  western  passage  to  1602. 
India  were  not  yet  abandoned.     Captain  Wey mouth,  dis- 
patched in  search  of  such  a  passage  by  the  Earl  of  Arun- 
del,  an  enterprising  nobleman  of  that  day,  had  again  en- 
tered and  examined  Penobscot  Bay,  within  a  few  months  1605 
after  De  Monts's  visit.     He  carried  with  him  to  England 
five  of  the  natives.     Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  governor  of 
Plymouth,  was  beginning  to  feel  a  strong  interest  in 
American  colonization.     He  took  from  Weymouth  three 
of  these  Indians,  whom  he  kept  about  him,  and  afterward 


94  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  employed,  with  some  others  who  came  into  his  hands,  as 
'       pilots  and  interpreters  in  his  American  enterprises. 

1603.  The  recent  accession  of  James  I.  to  the  English  throne, 

1604.  and  the  peace  which  he  negotiated  with  Spain,  having 
put  an  end  to  privateering  expeditions  against  the  Span- 
ish  settlements,    the   attention    of  English   merchants, 
navigators,  and  adventurers  was  now  directed  to  more 
peaceful  enterprises.      Commerce  and  colonization  took 
the  place  of  piracy  and  plunder.      Sir  Walter  Raleigh 
was  in  the  Tower,  attainted  of  high  treason  for  his  at- 
tempt to  substitute  Arabella  Stuart  instead  of  James  I. 
as  Elizabeth's  successor.      His  patent  being  forfeit  by  his 

1606.  attainder,  James  I.  granted  a  new  charter,  by  which  the 
April  10.  Americari  coast,  between  the  thirty-fourth  and  the  forty- 
fifth  degree  of  north  latitude — from  Cape  Fear  to  Pas- 
samaquoddy  Bay — was  set  apart  to  be  colonized  by  two 
rival  companies,  one  composed  chiefly  of  London  adven- 
turers, the  other  of  residents  in  the  west  of  England, 
especially  at  Plymouth  and  Bristol,  at  that  time  the 
chief  seats  of  the  west  country  trade.  Liverpool,  as 
yet,  was  an  inconsiderable  village,  and  the  north  of  En- 
gland a  pastoral  country. 

The  advancement  of  the  Divine  glory,  "  by  bringing 
the  Indians  a  ad  savages  resident  in  those  parts  to  human 
civility  and  a  settled  and  quiet  government,"  was  alleged 
as  the  principal  motive  of  James's  grant.  The  under- 
takers, however,  looked  chiefly  to  a  gainful  commerce 
and  profitable  returns. 

By  the  provisions  of  the  charter,  the  London  Company, 
whose  settlement  was  to  be  distinguished  as  the  First 
Colony  of  Virginia,  might  plant  any  where  between  thir- 
ty-four and  forty-one  degrees  of  north  latitude,  or  between 
Cape  Fear  and  the  east  end  of  Long  Island.  The  Plym- 
outh Company,  whose  settlement  was  to  be  called  the 


CHARTER    OF   VIRGINIA.  95 

Second  Colony  of  Virginia,  might  plant  any  where  be-  CHAPTER 
tween  the  thirty-eighth  and  forty-fifth  degrees  of  north  ' 
latitude,  or  between  Delaware  Bay  and  Halifax ;  but  1606. 
neither  company  was  to  begin  its  settlement  within  a 
hundred  miles  of  any  spot  previously  occupied  by  the 
other.  Each  colony  was  to  extend  along  the  coast  fifty 
miles  either  way  from  the  point  first  occupied,  and  from 
the  same  point  inland  and  seaward,  either  way,  one  hun- 
dred miles,  including  all  islands  within  that  distance,  and 
embracing  ten  thousand  square  miles  of  continental  ter- 
ritory. A  council,  resident  in  each  colony,  to  be  com- 
posed of  thirteen  members  nominated  by  the  king,  was 
to  manage  local  affairs.  No  settlement  was  to  be  al- 
lowed inland  of  either  colony  without  the  express  consent 
of  its  council.  A  "  Council  of  Virginia,"  resident  in 
England,  its  members  also  appointed  by  the  king,  was  to 
exercise  a  general  superintendence  over  both  colonies. 

The  two  companies  were  authorized  to  search  for  mines, 
paying  the  king  a  fifth  of  all  gold  and  silver,  and  a 
fifteenth  of  all  copper.  They  were  empowered  to  coin 
money,  to  invite  and  carry  over  adventurers,  to  repel  in- 
truders, to  levy  duties  for  their  own  use  during  twenty- 
one  years,  and  to  export  goods  from  England  free  of  all 
imposts  for  seven  years.  Lands  in  the  colony  were  to 
be  held  of  the  king,  on  the  most  favorable  tenure ;  the 
colonists  and  their  children  to  have  all  the  rights  of  na- 
tive-born Englishmen.  If  any  of  them  committed  rob- 
bery or  piracy  on  vessels  of  other  nations  at  peace  with 
England,  and,  being  required  by  proclamation,  omitted 
to  make  full  restitution,  they  might  be  put  out  of  the 
king's  allegiance  and  protection,  and  left  to  the  spoil  of 
the  people  they  had  plundered.  This  clause,  borrowed 
from  Gilbert's  patent,  and  copied  into  several  subsequent 
charters,  evinces  the  prevalence  of  piracy  in  that  age, 
and  the  very  ineffectual  means  adopted  to  suppress  it. 


96  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER       A  few  months  after  the  grant  of  this  charter,  James 

in. 
issued  "  Instructions  for  the  government  of  Virginia,"  in 

1606.  which  he  appointed  a  council,  as  provided  for  in  the 
Nov.  20.  charter,  to  be  increased  or  altered  at  the  king's  pleas- 
ure,  and  authorized  to  nominate   and  superintend  the 
local  councils,  reduced  by  these  instructions  to  seven 
members  each.     These  seven  were  to  choose  a  presi- 
dent from  their  own  number,  with  power  to   suspend 
him  or  any  counselor  for  good  cause,  and  to  fill  vacan- 
cies till  new  appointments  came  from  England;  the  pres- 
ident to  have  a  double  vote.      It  was  made  the  especial 
duty  of  these  councils  to  provide  that  "  the  true  word 
and  service  of  God,  according  to  the  rites  and  service  of 
the  Church  of  England,  be  preached,  planted,  and  used 
in  the  colonies  and  among   the  neighboring   savages." 
Tumults,   rebellion,   conspiracy,    mutiny,   and  sedition, 
along  with  seven  other  offenses,  all  triable  by  jury,  were 
declared  capital ;    lesser  offenses  were  to  be  tried  sum- 
marily, and  punished  by  the  local  councils  at  their  dis- 
cretion ;  all  laws  enacted  by  these  councils  not  touch- 
ing life  or  limb,  to  remain  in  force  till  set  aside  by  the 
king  or  the  council  for  Virginia.     For  five  years  after 
their  first  plantation,  the  trade  and  industry  of  the  colo- 
nists were  to  remain  a  common  stock,  or  « two  or  three 
stocks  at  the  most,"  to  be  managed,  in  each  colony,  by 
a  factor  selected  annually  by  the  local  council,  and  in 
England  by  committees  appointed  for  that  purpose.     A 
knowledge  of  these  provisions  is  necessary  to  make  the 
early  history  of  Virginia  intelligible. 

The  French  adventurers,  meanwhile,  were  not  idle. 
Poutrincourt  obtained  in  France  a  confirmation  of  the 
grant  he  had  received  from  De  Monts ;  and,  cotempo- 
raneously  with  the  first  enterprises  of  the  London  and 

1607.  Plymouth  Companies,  he  established  at  Port  Royal  the 


NEW  FRANCE  AND  NEW  NETHERLAND.     97 

first  permanent  French  settlement  in  America.      The  CHAPTER 
year  after,  Champlain,  whom  we  have  seen  participating 
in  the  enterprises  of  Chauvin  and  De  Monts,  obtained  1608. 
an  outfit  from  some  merchants  of  St.  Malo  and  Dieppe 
and  planted  on  the  St.  Lawrence  the  post  of  Quebec. 
Being  joined  in  the  spring  by  Pontgrave,  he  united  with  1609. 
a  party  of  Hurons  and  Algonquins  in  a  war  expedition 
against  the  Iroquois  or  Five  Nations,  ascended  the  So- 
rel,  and,  first  of  white  men,  entered  and  coasted  the  lake 
which  still  bears  his  name.      A  series  of  explorations 
presently  followed,  whence  arose  the  French  claim  to 
that  vast  tract  of  interior  America,  comprehended,  along 
with  Canada  and  Acadie,  under  the  general  name  of 
NEW  FRANCE. 

Almost  cotemporaneously  with  the  first  French  ex- 
ploration of  Lake  Champlain,  another  celebrated  discov- 
erer was  penetrating  from  an  opposite  direction  toward 
the  same  point.  Henry  Hudson,  an  enterprising  English 
navigator,  who  had  made  two  voyages,  in  the  employ  of 
London  merchants,  in  search  of  a  north  or  northwest 
passage  to  India,  not  finding  further  encouragement  at 
home,  had  passed  over  to  Holland,  where  he  obtained 
from  the  Amsterdam  chamber  of  the  Dutch  East  India 
Company  a  small  vessel  called  the  Half  Moon,  in  which 
he  undertook  a  third  voyage.  Hudson  seems  to  have  March, 
entertained  the  project  of  sailing  directly  across  the 
north  pole  to  India ;  but,  finding  his  track  to  the  north 
impeded  by  ice,  he  turned  to  the  southwest;  ran  along 
the  coast  of  Acadie;  entered  Penobscot  Bay,  where  he 
traded  with  the  Indians,  and  basely  robbed  them  at  his  Jaiy 
departure ;  made  the  land  of  Cape  Cod,  which  he  took 
for  an  island,  and  named  New  Holland  ;  stretched  thence 
to  the  entrance  of  Chesapeake  Bay,  where  the  London 
Virginia  Company,  as  he  knew,  already  had  a  colony; 
I.  G 


98  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  turned  again  to  the  north  ;  looked  into  the  bay  afterward 
'      called  the  Delaware ;   and  presently  discovered  and  as- 

1609.  cended  the  river  now  so  familiarly  known  as  the  Hud- 

£u£-    son.  but  which  he   called  "  River   of  the  Mountains." 
Sept. 

So  far  as  is  known,  the  Bay  of  New  York  had  remained 
un visited  by  Europeans  since  the  time  of  Verrazzani. 
The  natives  on  the  banks  of  the  river,  struck  with  won- 
der at  Hudson's  vessels,  were  easily  induced  to  a  friendly 
intercourse,  repaid  by  Hudson  with  reckless  cruelty,  liko 
that  which  had  disgraced  his  conduct  at  Penobscot. 

On  her  passage  home  the  Half  Moon  entered  an  En- 
glish port.  The  ship  was  at  length  allowed  to  depart ; 
but  Hudson  was  detained  by  a  royal  order,  and  presently 

1610.  fitted  out  for  a  fourth  voyage.      Having  penetrated  into 
the  great  bay  which  still  bears  his  name — though  Cabot 
seems  to  have  entered  it  a  century  before — he  passed 
the  winter  frozen  up  in  the  ice.      On  his  return  home- 
ward in  the  spring,  his  crew,  provoked  by  his  hard  and 
stern  temper,  revolted,  and  set  him  adrift  in  an  open 
boat  with  his  young  son  and  eight  others. 

In  virtue  of  the  discovery  made  by  Hudson  while  sail- 
ing under  their  flag,  the  Dutch,  now  fast  coming  forward 
as  the  leading  commercial  people  of  Europe,  claimed  the 
North  American  coast,  under  the  name  of  NEW  NETHER- 
LAND,  from  the  South  Bay,  which  the  English  called  the 
Delaware,  as  far  east  as  Cape  Cod,  and,  indeed,  to  Passa- 
maquoddy  Bay.  Virginia,  New  France,  and  New  Neth- 
erland  thus  overlapped  each  other ;  and  to  the  natural  and 
inevitable  difficulties  of  that  colonization  which  now  first 
began  to  be  successfully  attempted,  were  added  terri- 
torial disputes,  national  rivalries,  religious  antipathies, 
and  all  the  petty  hatreds  and  jealousies  of  trade,  con- 
ducted at  that  time  on  much  narrower  principles  than 
at  present. 


SETTLEMENT  OF  VIRGINIA.  99 


CHAPTER    IV. 

SETTLEMENT  OF  VIRGINIA. 

JL  HE  persons  named  in  the  charter  of  Virginia,  as  CHAPTER 
founders  of  the  London  Company,  were  Sir  Thomas 
Gates,  Sir  George  Somers,  Richard  Hakluyt,  and  Ed-  1606. 
ward  Maria  Wingfield.  Others  were  persuaded,  or  had 
previously  agreed  to  take  part  in  the  enterprise,  espe- 
cially Sir  Thomas  Smith,  an  eminent  merchant  of  Lon- 
don, one  of  the  assignees  of  Raleigh's  patent,  who  was 
chosen  treasurer  of  the  new  company.  For  every  sum 
of  £12  10s.,  about  sixty  dollars,  paid  into  the  com- 
pany's treasury,  the  contributor  was  entitled  to  an  hun- 
dred acres  of  land,  and  as  much  more  when  the  first  lot 
was  cultivated.  This  was  called  "  the  adventure  of  the 
purse."  Under  the  head  of  "personal  adventure,"  who- 
soever emigrated  to  Virginia,  or  carried  others  thither 
at  his  own  expense,  was  to  be  allowed  an  hundred  acres 
for  each  person  so  transported.  It  was  expected  by  this 
allowance  not  only  to  encourage  the  voluntary  emigra- 
tion of  persons  able  to  pay  their  own  expenses,  but  to 
promote  the  transportation,  at  the  expense  of  private  in- 
dividuals, of  servants  indented  or  bound  for  a  term  of 
years — a  species  of  emigrants  esteemed  essential  to  the 
industry  of  the  colony,  and  which  we  shall  find  as  a  dis- 
tinct class  in  all  the  Anglo-American  settlements.  On 
all  grants  of  land  a  quit-rent  was  reserved. 

The  company  thus  organized  fitted  out  three  vessels, 
under  the  command  of  Christopher  Newport,  who  had 


HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  acquired  a  maritime  reputation  by  former  expeditions 

'       against  the  Spaniards.      One  hundred  and  five  men  em- 

1606.  "barked  in  these  vessels,  destined  to  form  the  first  colony 

Dee.  19.  of  Virginia,  but  not  very  well  selected  for  such  a  pur- 
pose. Of  this  small  number  forty-eight  were  "  gentle- 
men," persons  brought  up  to  esteem  manual  labor  as  de- 
grading. There  were  but  twelve  laborers,  four  carpen- 
ters, and  a  few  other  mechanics.  The  rest  were  soldiers 
and  servants.  The  leaders  were  Wingfield,  a  merchant, 
one  of  those  named  in  the  charter  as  projector  of  the  col- 
ony ;  Gosnold,  whose  voyage,  already  mentioned,  had  re- 
vived the  spirit  of  colonization  ;  Hunt,  the  chaplain  ;  and 
John  Smith,  an  energetic  adventurer,  the  historian  of  the 
enterprise,  in  which  he  played  a  conspicuous  part.  While 
a  mere  boy,  impelled  by  a  restless  spirit,  he  had  left  home, 
and,  finding  his  way  across  Europe,  had  engaged  in  the 
Austrian  service  in  the  war  against  the  Turks,  still  re- 
garded, at  that  time,  as  the  common  enemy  of  Christen- 
dom. After  many  adventures,  in  which  he  gave  repeated 
proofs  of  remarkable  courage  and  resolution,  Smith  had 
returned  to  England,  and,  accidentally  forming  an  ac- 
quaintance with  Gosnold,  entered  with  characteristic 
zeal  into  the  scheme  for  colonizing  Virginia. 

The  names  of  the  future  counselors  to  whom  the 
government  of  the  colony  was  to  be  intrusted  were  car- 
ried to  Virginia  a  profound  secret,  carefully  sealed  up  in 
a  tin  box,  along  with  King  James's  instructions.  New- 
port proceeded  by  way  of  the  Canaries  and  the  West  In- 
dies, and  during  the  long  passage  cabals  arose.  Wing- 
field,  jealous  of  Smith's  reputation,  accused  him  of  a  de- 
sign to  murder  the  council,  usurp  the  government,  and 
make  himself  King  of  Virginia  ;  and  on  this  extraordina- 
ry charge  Smith  was  arrested,  and  kept  in  confinement 
during  the  remainder  of  the  passage.  Several  weeks 


SETTLEMENT  OF   VIRGINIA.          •  £  Q  j 

were  spent  among  the  Caribbee  Islands.      Sailing  thence  CHAPTER 
in  search  of  the  coast  of  Virginia,   a  fortunate  storm 
drove  the  vessels  past  Roanoke,  and  after  a  four  months'  1607. 
passage   from  England  they  entered  Chesapeake  Bay.  April  26. 
The  two  headlands  at  the  entrance  were  named  Cape 
Henry  and  Cape  Charles,  after  the  king's  two  sons.     A 
party  of  thirty  landing  on  Cape  Henry,  were  attacked  by 
five  of  the  natives,  and  had  two  of  their  number  wound- 
ed.    Presently  the  ships  came  to  anchor  at  old  Point 
Comfort,  at  the  mouth  of  a  broad  river  or  estuary.      The 
sealed  box  was  now  opened,  and  the  names  of  Wingfield, 
Newport,  Gosnold,  Smith,  and  three  others  were  found 
in  it,  appointed  to  compose  the  council. 

Nearly  three  weeks  were  employed  in  exploring  the 
country,  during  which  the  vessels  ascended  the  great 
River  Powhatan,  a  principal  tributary  of  the  Chesa- 
peake. The  new  comers  were  kindly  received  at  several 
places  by  the  natives,  who  now  saw  white  men  for  the 
first  time.  A  spot  was  chosen  for  settlement  on  the 
north  bank  of  the  river,  about  fifty  miles  from  the  bay 
— a  peninsula  which  afforded,  on  the  water  side,  good  an- 
chorage, and  on  the  land  side  might  be  easily  defended, 
but  with  a  low  and  marshy  situation  unfavorable  to 
health.  This  spot  was  called  Jamestown,  and  the  river 
soon  became  known  as  James,  or  King's  River. 

Exercising  the  powers  conferred  upon  them  by  the 
royal  instructions,  the  council  excluded  Smith,  and  chose 
Wingfield  president.  It  was  proposed  to  send  Smith  to 
England  ;  nor  was  it  without  difficulty  that  he  obtained 
the  privilege  of  being  tried  in  the  colony.  Meanwhile, 
with  Newport,  he  explored  James  River  as  high  up  as 
the  falls,  where  they  were  hospitably  entertained  by  the 
great  chief  Powhatan.  On  their  return,  they  found  the 
colonists  at  Jamestown  already  in  a  quarrel  with  the  na- 


102  'HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  tives  ;  but  this  difficulty  was  soon  arranged.     Smith  was 

__ tried,  and,  being  honorably  acquitted  by  the  jury,  who 

1607.  levied  heavy  damages  on  Wingfield,  his  accuser,  he  was 
now,  by  the  mediation  of  Hunt,  restored  to  his  seat  in 
the  council. 

All  that  part  of  the  present  state  of  Virginia  below  the 
falls  of  the  rivers  was  found  by  the  English  in  the  pos- 
session of  native  tribes  of  Algonquin  speech,  united  in  a 
confederacy,  called  by  the  settlers  the  Powhatans,  plural 
of  the  name  by  which  they  distinguished  the  great  chief 
at  its  head.  This  chief,  "  a  tall,  sour,  athletic  man, 
about  sixty  years  old,"  who  dwelt  in  a  little  village  of 
some  twelve  wigwams  near  the  falls  of  James  River,  al- 
ready visited  by  Smith  and  Newport,  was  magnified  by 
the  colonists  into  the  "  Emperor  of  Virginia."  The  Pow- 
hatan  confederacy  embraced  more  than  forty  clans  or  pet- 
ty tribes,  scattered  over  a  great  space,  living  together  in 
little  hamlets,  few  of  which  had  so  many  as  two  or  three 
hundred  inhabitants.  James  River,  above  the  falls,  was 
inhabited  by  the  five  tribes  of  the  MonicanSj  generally 
hostile  to  the  Powhatans,  as  were  the  Mannahoacs,  a 
confederacy  of  eight  tribes  inhabiting  the  upper  courses 
of  the  Rappahannoc  and  the  Potomac.  These  two  con- 
federacies appear  to  have  spoken  dialects  of  the  Wyandot 
language.  The  total  population  of  the  three  confedera- 
cies, including  all  the  Indians  west  of  Chesapeake  Bay, 
as  far  as  the  Blue  Ridge,  did  not  probably  exceed  fifteen 
or  twenty  thousand.  But  to  the  few  English  they  ap- 
peared very  numerous. 

June.  Shortly  after  Newport's  departure,  the  colonists  began 
to  suffer  from  disease,  aggravated  by  want  of  proper 
food.  The  water  was  bad  ;  their  provisions,  doled  out 
in  small  allowances  from  the  common  store,  consisted 
principally  of  wheat  and  barley  heated  and  damaged  on 


SETTLEMENT  OF  VIRGINIA.  1Q3 

the  long  voyage.     To  this  they  added  crabs  and  stur-  CHAPTER 

geon,  with  which  the  river  abounded.     The  natives,  sick . 

of  such  visitors,  began  again  to  grow  unfriendly.  Dis-  1607. 
ease  was  aggravated  by  melancholy  and  despair.  From 
May  to  September  half  the  colonists  died,  among  others 
Gosnold,  after  whose  death  the  council  could  hardly 
agree.  Wingfield,  the  president,  was  accused  of  appro- 
priating the  best  stores  to  his  own  private  use,  and  of 
living  in  luxury  while  the  others  were  starving.  He  at- 
tempted to  escape  from  the  unfortunate  colony  in  a  bark 
which  Newport  had  left,  but  was  detected,  deposed  from 
his  office  of  president,  and,  along  with  Kendall,  one  of 
his  confederates,  was  expelled  the  council.  That  body 
was  now  reduced  to  three  members,  the  vacancies  occa- 
sioned by  the  departure  of  Newport,  the  death  of  Gosnold, 
and  the  recent  expulsions  remaining  unfilled.  RatclifTe, 
the  new  president,  was  inefficient,  and  the  management 
of  affairs  fell  chiefly  into  the  hands  of  Smith.  Inspir- 
ing his  companions  with  a  portion  of  his  own  energy,  he 
induced  them  to  build  a  palisadoed  fort  as  a  protection 
against  the  Indians,  and  to  erect  huts  for  the  winter. 
As  the  season  approached  for  gathering  the  Indian  corn, 
with  a  few  attendants  he  visited  the  neighboring  tribes, 
and  by  presents  and  caresses  among  the  friendly,  and 
open  force  upon  the  unwilling,  obtained  a  much-needed 
supply.  Plots  still  continued  to  be  formed  by  Wing- 
field,  Kendall,  and  others,  for  leaving  the  colony,  and  a 
rencounter  presently  took  place,  in  which  these  plotters 
were  defeated,  and  Kendall  was  killed.  As  winter  £et 
in,  abundance  of  game  and  wild  fowl  dissipated  all  ap-  Dec. 
prehensions  of  famine. 

Matters  thus  in  a  more  favorable  train,  Smith  set  out 
to  explore  the  Chickahominy,  a  tributary  which  entered 
James  River  a  little  above  Jamestown.  No  just  ideas 


104  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  were  yet  entertained  as  to  the  breadth  of  the  continent, 
whio.h  was  still  believed  to  be  as  narrow  at  the  north  as 

1607.  it  was  known  to  be  in  Mexico.     The   colonists  were 
specially  instructed  to  seek  for  a  passage  to  the  South 
Sea ;   and  it  was  thought  that  possibly  the  Chickahom- 
iny  might  lead  thither.      Having  ascended  as  high  as  he 
could  in  his  barge,  Smith  followed  up  the  stream  in  a 
canoe,  with  two  colonists  and  two  Indians  for  compan- 
ions, and  when  the  canoe  would  float  no  longer,  he  left 
the  two  colonists  to  guard  it,  and  struck  inland  with  a 
single  Indian  as  a  guide.      Set  upon  unexpectedly  by  a 
large  party  of  natives,  who  had  already  surprised  and 
killed  the  two  men  left  to  guard  his  canoe,  Smith  bound 
his  Indian  guide  to  his  arm  as  a  buckler,  and  made  a 
vigorous  defense,  killing  three  of  his  assailants ;   but  as 
he  retreated  backward,  he  presently  sank  into  a  miry 
swamp,   and  was  taken  prisoner.       His  captors  would 
have  killed  him,  but  he  amused  them  with  a  pocket  com- 
pass.     Carried  in  a  sort  of  triumph  through  several  vil- 
lages, he  was  taken  before  Powhatan,  the  same  chief 
whom  he  had  visited  in  company  with  Newport.      An  at- 
tempt was  made  to   engage   his   services — at  least  so 
Smith    understood   it — in    surprising    the    colonists   at 
Jamestown.      Having  failed  in  this,  after  much  consul- 
tation it  was  resolved  to  put  him  to  death.     He  was 
dragged  to  the  ground,  and  his  head  placed  upon  a  stone  ; 
Powhatan  raised  a  club  to  dash  out  his  brains,  when 
Pocahontas,  the  sachem's  favorite  daughter,  a  child  ten 
or  twelve  years  old,  rushed  through  the  crowd,  clasped 
in  her  arms  the  head  of  the  victim,  and,  resting  her  own 
upon  it,  averted  the  fatal  blow.     His  life  was  saved ; 
many  new  ceremonies  passed  between  him  and  the  In- 

1608.  dians,  and  after  seven  weeks'  captivity,  accompanied  by 
January,  twelve  Indian  guides,  he  was  sent  back  to  Jamestown. 


SETTLEMENT    OF   VIRGINIA.  105 

He  found  the  colony  reduced  to  thirty-eight  persons,  CHAPTER 
wholly  discouraged  and  disheartened,  and  some  of  them         ' 
again  planning  an  escape  in  the  bark.     For  the  third  1608. 
time,  mingling  threats  and  entreaties,  he  induced  them 
to  remain,  and  having  procured  from  the  Indians,  with 
whom  he  was  now  in  great  favor,  abundance  of  provisions, 
he  maintained  plenty  in  the  colony  till  Newport  arrived, 
bringing  supplies,  and  a  hundred  and  twenty  new  set- 
tlers.    But  of  the  two  ships  of  which  this  expedition 
consisted,   one   was   driven   by   rough   weather    to  the 
West  Indies,  and  thus  kept  back  for  several  weeks. 

This  new  company  were  much  the  same  sort  of  peo- 
ple who  had  composed  the  first  colony,  vagabond  gentle- 
men, unaccustomed  to  labor  and  disdainful  of  it,  with 
three  or  four  bankrupt  London  jewelers,  goldsmiths,  and 
refiners,  sent  out  to  seek  for  mines.  In  a  small  stream 
near  Jamestown  they  presently  discovered  some  glitter- 
ing bits  of  yellow  mica,  which  they  mistook  for  gold  dust. 
Every  thing  else  was  now  neglected  ;  there  was  no 
thought  nor  conversation  but  about  digging,  washing, 
and  refining  gold.  Newport,  whom  Smith  ^  describes  as 
"  empty,  idle,  timid,  and  ostentatious,"  proceeded  up  the 
river  to  visit  Powhatan,  and  deliver  to  him  some  presents 
he  had  brought.  His  ship  was  thus  kept  waiting,  the 
crew  trenching  on  the  supply  of  provisions,  diminished 
also  by  an  accidental  fire,  which  destroyed  the  store-house 
and  most  of  the  huts.  At  last  Newport's  ship  set  sail 
for  England,  laden  with  fancied  wealth.  Wingfield  and 
some  of  his  partisans  went  in  her.  Martin,  one  of  the 
counselors,  returned  to  England  in  the  other  vessel,  to 
claim  the  reward  promised  to  the  first  discoverer  of  a 
mine.  With  much  difficulty,  Smith  prevailed  to  load 
that  vessel  with  cedar,  which,  with  a  quantity  of  skins 
and  furs,  constituted  the  first  valuable  remittance  from 


106  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  Virginia.     Martin's  place  in  the  council  was  supplied 

by  Scrivener,  who  had  come  out  in  Newport's  vessel. 

1 608.  While  the  colonists  rebuilt  their  huts  and  tended  their 
corn-fields,  Smith  employed  himself  in  the  exploration  of 
Chesapeake  Bay,  for  which  purpose  he  made  two  voy- 
ages in  an  open  boat  of  five  tons,  attended  by  a  sur- 
geon, six  gentlemen,  and  five  soldiers.  He  explored  the 
numerous  rivers  and  inlets,  especially  on  the  west  side 
of  the  bay  ;  entered  the  Susquehanna,  the  Patapsco,  and 
the  Potomac,  all  of  which  he  ascended  to  their  first  falls  ; 
and,  after  sailing  more  than  three  thousand  miles,  drew 
the  first  chart  of  the  Chesapeake,  which  was  transmitted 
to  England,  and  presently  published,  with  a  description 
of  the  country.  Smith  found  the  Susquehannas,  and 
other  Indians  at  the  head  of  the  bay,  already  in  posses- 
sion of  iron  hatchets,  obtained  probably  by  way  of  Can- 
ada from  the  French  fur  traders  in  the  St.  Lawrence. 
These  Indians  lived  in  constant  terror  of  the  formidable 
Massawomacs,  no  doubt  the  Iroquois  or  Five  Nations. 
Smith  himself  met  with  a  party  of  that  dreaded  race  re- 
turning in  canoes  from  a  war  expedition.  After  visiting 
the  Mannahoacs  at  the  head  of  the  Rappahannoc,  and, 
in  a  second  expedition,  the  Nansemonds  and  Chesapeakes 
Sept.  at  the  south  part  of  the  bay,  he  returned  to  Jamestown 
with  a  cargo  of  corn.  The  settlers  now  also  gathered 
the  first  corn  of  their  own  planting. 

On  his  return  from  his  second  voyage  of  exploration 
Smith  became  president  of  the  council,  an  office  held  for 
some  time  previously  by  Scrivener,  to  whom  the  sick  and 
inefficient  Ratcliffe  had  yielded  it. 

Newport  arrived  soon  after  with  seventy  additional 
people,  among  whom  were  two  new  counselors  and  two 
women,  the  first  who  visited  the  colony.  There  came, 
also,  eight  Poles  and  Germans,  sent  to  teach  the  art  of 


SETTLEMENT   OF   VIRGINIA.  ^  Q  7 

making  pitch,  tar,  potashes,  and  glass.     The  officers  of  CHAPTEH 

the  company  wrote  by  this   opportunity  in   an  angry  L_, 

strain.  They  were  much  disturbed  by  a  story,  started  tb08 
probably  by  Wingfield  and  the  other  returned  emigrants, 
that  the  starving  and  discontented  colonists,  who  desired 
nothing  so  much  as  to  get  away,  intended  to  seize  the 
territory  of  Virginia,  and  to  divide  it  among  themselves. 
They  expressed  great  dissatisfaction  that  their  heavy  out- 
lays had  yet  produced  no  adequate  return ;  and  New- 
port  brought  special  orders  to  obtain  certain  intelligence 
of  a  passage  to  the  South  Sea,  to  send  home  a  lump  of 
real  gold,  or  to  find  some  of  the  lost  company  formerly 
planted  on  the  Island  of  Roanoke.  Unless  valuable  com- 
modities were  remitted  sufficient  to  pay  the  expense  of 
this  voyage,  amounting  to  £2000,  about  .$10,000,  the 
colonists  were  threatened  to  be  left  to  shift  for  them- 
selves, "  as  banished  men." 

Resolved  to  make  the  best  of  such  materials  as  he  had, 
Smith  exerted  his  authority  with  vigor.  The  gentle- 
men, taught  to  wield  the  axe,  and  converted  into  dex- 
terous woodcutters,  were  'employed  in  preparing  a  cargo 
for  the  ship.  To  eat,  they  must  work.  The  common 
store  from  which  the  colonists  were  fed  was  mainly  de- 
pendent on  corn  purchased  from  the  Indians  with  goods 
sent  out  by  the  company.  Newport  again  visited  Pow- 
hatan,  carrying  as  presents  a  scarlet  cloak  and  gilded 
crown.  He  wished  to  engage  that  chief  to  assist  him 
in  exploring  the  country  of  the  Monicans  above  the  falls 
of  James  River,  and,  notwithstanding  Powhatan's  refu- 
sal, he  undertook  an  expedition  for  that  purpose,  from 
which  he  returned  with  some  specimens  of  alleged  silver 
ore,  his  men  starving,  sick,  and  dispirited.  Great  exer- 
tions now  became  necessary  to  secure  a  supply  of  pro- 
visions. Contributions  were  levied  on  the  neighboring 


108  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  Indian  villages.      Smith  also  visited   Powhatan  for  the 

iv. 
.  same  purpose,  but  found  him  hostile  and  treacherous. 

1608.  Again  he  was  saved  by  Pocahontas,  who  came  through 
a  storm  at  midnight  to  inform  him  of  his  danger. 

At  length  Newport's  vessel  was  dispatched  with  a 
cargo  of  wainscot  and  clapboards,  and  specimens  of  tar, 
pitch,  and  potashes,  prepared  by  the  Germans.  Smith 
wrote,  in  reply  to  the  complaints  of  the  company,  that  it 
were  better  to  send  out  thirty  working  men  than  a  thou- 
sand like  the  present  colonists. 

Whatever  disappointment  might  be  expressed  in  their 
letters  to  Virginia,  the  London  Company  put  a  good 
face  upon  matters  at  home.  Means  were  taken  to  make 
the  speculation  popular,  and  the  number  of  adventurers 
was  greatly  increased.  Besides  many  noblemen,  knights, 
gentlemen,  merchants,  and  wealthy  tradesmen,  most  of 
the  incorporated  trades  of  London  were  induced  to  take 

1609.  shares  in  the  stock.      A  new  charter  was  also  obtained, 
May  23.  ^y  -which  the  enterprise  was  placed  upon  quite  a  new 

footing.  "  The  Treasurer  and  Company  of  Adventurers 
and  Planters  of  the  City  of  London,  for  the  First  Colony 
in  Virginia,"  were  made  a  corporation,  its  affairs  to  be 
managed  by  a  council,  of  which  the  first  members  were 
named  in  the  patent ;  but  all  vacancies  were  to  be  filled 
by  the  stockholders,  who  were  also  empowered  to  choose 
the  treasurer,  the  chief  executive  officer  of  the  company. 
To  this  corporation  was  granted  a  territory  extending 
two  hundred  miles  north  from  old  Point  Comfort,  the 
same  distance  south,  and  west  to  the  Pacific.  The  local 
council  of  the  colony,  distracted  as  it  had  been  by  ca- 
bals and  personal  jealousies,  the  universal  fate  of  a  divi- 
ded executive,  was  superseded  by  a  governor,  to  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  company's  council  in  England,  and  to 
have  the  sole  superintendence  of  local  affairs.  That  same 


SETTLEMENT   OF  VIRGINIA. 


109 


council  was  also  empowered  to  make  laws  for  the  colony,  CHAPTER 
conformable,  however,  "  as  near  as  might  be,"  to  those         ' 
of  England — a  restriction  inserted  into  all  subsequent  1609. 
charters,  and,  independently  of  any  charter,  a  fundament- 
al limitation  on  colonial  legislation.      To  guard  against 
the  intrusion  of  Romish  superstitions,  the  Oath  of  Su- 
premacy was  to  be  taken  by  all  persons  arriving  in  the 
colony.     Under  this  new  charter  Lord  De  la  War  was 
appointed  governor,  with  a  lieutenant  governor,  admiral, 
vice-admiral,  high  marshal,  and  other  high-titled  officers, 
all  for  life. 

Lord  De  la  War's  affairs  detained  him  for  some  time 
in  England ;  but  a  fleet  of  nine  vessels  set  sail  at  once, 
with  five  hundred  colonists  on  board.  Newport,  again 
admiral,  was  authorized,  jointly  with  Sir  Thomas  Gates 
and  Sir  George  Somers,  to  administer  the  government 
till  Lord  De  la  War's  arrival.  Not  able  to  agree  about 
precedence,  these  three  commanders  embarked  in  the  same 
vessel,  and,  in  a  violent  storm  which  dispersed  the  fleet, 
they  were  cast  ashore  on  one  of  the  Bermudas.  The 
other  ships,  except  one  which  was  lost,  arrived  safely  in 
James  River.  Most  of  the  new  comers  were  of  the  same 
sort  with  those  formerly  sent  out,  poor  gentlemen,  indo- 
lent, dissolute,  and  insubordinate,  or  else  broken  trades- 
men, "  fitter  to  breed  a  riot  than  to  found  a  colony." 
The  old  system  had  been  abrogated;  but,  owing  to  the 
non-arrival  of  the  three  commissioners,  there  was  no  per- 
son in  the  colony  authorized  to  act  under  the  new  char- 
ter. The  new  comers  disputed  the  authority  of  Smith, 
who  struggled,  however,  to  maintain  his  power,  in  which, 
indeed,  he  was  justified  by  the  express  provisions  of  the 
new  charter,  which  continued  the  old  government  until 
the  new  one  should  be  formally  organized.  To  rid  him- 
self in  part  of  these  troublesome  guests,  he  established  two 


HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 
CHAPTER  new  settlements,  one  at  the  falls  of  James  River,  the 

IV. 

other  at  Nansemond,  near  the  present  site  of  Norfolk. 

1609.  These  settlers  conducted  with  great  insolence,  and  soon 
involved  themselves  in  dispute  with  the  neighboring  In- 
dians. Smith  quieted  matters  for  the  moment ;  but  the 
colony  soon  lost  his  valuable  services.  Severely  wound- 
ed by  the  accidental  explosion  of  his  powder-bag  as  he 
was  sleeping  in  his  boat,  he  was  obliged  to  return  to  En- 
gland, in  one  of  the  newly-arrived  vessels,  for  surgical 

October,  aid.  He  left  near  five  hundred  persons  in  Virginia,  well 
supplied  with  arms,  provisions,  and  goods  for  the  Indian 
traffic.  Jamestown  had  a  fort,  church,  store-house,  and 
about  sixty  dwelling  houses,  with  a  stock  of  hogs,  goats, 
sheep,  fowls,  and  a  few  horses ;  but  the  cultivated  land, 
the  produce  of  which  went  into  the  colony  store,  was  lim- 
ited to  thirty  or  forty  acres.  The  main  resource  for  food 
was  corn  purchased  or  extorted  from  the  Indians,  and 
dealt  out  from  the  common  store. 

At  Smith's  departure,  the  better  part  of  the  colonists 
solicited  Captain  Percy,*  one  of  the  original  settlers,  of  the 
noble  family  of  that  name,  to  act  as  president ;  but  he 
was  confined  to  his  bed  by  sickness,  and  his  authority 
wa«  not  respected.  The  colonists  gave  themselves  up  to 
riot  and  idleness.  They  wastefully  consumed  the  store 
of  provisions,  killed  the  stock,  traded  away  their  arms 

J610.  with  the  natives,  and  presently  suffered  severely  from 
famine.  Ratcliffe,  with  a  numerous  party,  on  a  trading 
expedition  for  corn,  was  waylaid  by  the  Indians,  and  cut 
off  with  all  his  company.  Many  stragglers,  wandering 
about  in  search  of  food,  suffered  the  same  fate.  A  com- 
pany of  thirty  seized  a  small  vessel  belonging  to  the  col- 
ony, and  sailed  away  to  turn  pirates.  In  the  traditions 
of  Virginia,  this  period  was  long  remembered  as  the 
Starving  Time.  In  six  months  there  were  only  sixty 


SETTLEMENT   OF  VIRGINIA.  m 

persons  remaining,  and  those  so  feeble,  dejected,  and  des-  CHAPTER 
titute,  that,  without  aid,  they  could  not  have  survived  for  .  '  , 
ten  days  longer.  1611. 

At  this  critical  moment,  Newport,  Gates,  and  Somers,  May  26. 
with  an  hundred  and  fifty  men,  arrived  from  Bermuda, 
in  two  small  vessels  built  of  the  cedar  of  that  island  and 
the  fragments  of  their  stranded  ship.  Even  shipwreck 
had  not  reconciled  the  jealous  commissioners,  who  had 
formed  two  parties,  and  had  built  separate  vessels. 
They  had  been  fortunate  in  saving  tools  and  stores ;  the 
islands  abounded  in  turtle,  the  fat  of  which,  mixed  with 
lime,  served  to  pay  the  seams,  and  to  make  their  vessels 
water-tight ;  there  was  also  a  great  abundance  of  wild 
hogs — a  timely  supply  to  these  shipwrecked  adventurers. 
Arriving  from  such  a  land  of  plenty,  the  new  comers 
were  horror-struck  at  the  starving  condition  of  the  col- 
ony. They  had  themselves  but  sixteen  days'  provisions. 
It  was  resolved  to  abandon  Virginia,  and  to  sail  for  New- 
foundland, there  to  seek  food  and  a  passage  home  from 
the  fishermen.  So  great  was  the  disgust  of  the  disap- 
pointed colonists,  that  on  leaving  Jamestown  they  were 
hardly  restrained  from  setting  fire  to  the  buildings.  As 
they  descend  the  river,  a  boat  is  seen  coming  up.  It 
is  Lord  De  la  War,  the  governor,  just  arrived  from 
England,  with  three  ships,  bringing  provisions  and  cok 
onists.  He  persuaded  the  fugitive  settlers  to  return  to 
Jamestown,  where  he  entered  ceremoniously  upon  his 
office  with  a  speech  from  himself  and  a  sermon  from 
his  chaplain.  Somers  sailed  to  the  Bermudas  for  hogs, 
and  died  there,  leaving  his  name  to  the  islands.  Cap- 
tain Argall,  who  had  visited  the  colony  in  a  private 
trading  ship,  was  sent  to  the  Potomac  to  buy  corn  of 
the  Indians.  De  la  "War  established  a  post  at  Kiquo- 
tan,  now  Hampton,  at  the  entrance  of  James  River. 


112  HISTORY  Of  THE  UNITED    STATES- 

CHAPTER  In  punishment  of  injuries  inflicted  by  the  Indians  dur- 
'       ing  the  late  distressed  state  of  the  colony,  he  attacked 

1611.  and  burned  several  of  their  villages,  but  was  repulsed 
when  he  attempted  to  renew  the  settlement  at  the  falls. 
Taken  sick,  he  presently  returned  to  England,  leaving 
Percy  as  his  deputy.      The  colony  now  consisted  of  two 
hundred  men. 

Sir  Thomas  Dale  presently  arrived  with  three  ships, 
some  cattle,  and  three  hundred  settlers,  and,  in  De  la 
War's  absence,  assumed  the  government.  He  brought 
with  him  a  printed  code  of  laws,  harsh  and  strict,  com- 
piled by  Sir  Thomas  Smith,  the  treasurer  of  the  com- 
pany, chiefly  from  the  Dutch  Articles  of  War.  This 
code  remained  for  eight  years  the  law  of  the  colflny, 
additional  regulations  being  from  time  to  time  added  by 
proclamations  of  the  governor. 

1612.  Dale  established  a  new  plantation  up  the  river,  in- 
closed by  a  stockade,  and  called  Henrico,  after  the  king's 
eldest  son.     Another  settlement,  called  New  Bermuda, 
was  established  at  the  junction  of  the  Appomattox  with 
the  James.      The  Indians  who  dwelt  there  were  driven 
away,  and  a  stockade  from  river  to  river  inclosed  a  con- 
siderable extent  of  ground.      To  all  the  indented  serv- 
ants of  the  company,  Dale  assigned  three  acres  each  to 
cultivate  on  their  private  account,  for  which  purpose  time 
was  allowed  them  equivalent  to  a  month  annually.      To 
those  at  New  Bermuda  still  more  favorable  terms  were 
allowed.     They  were  to  pay  a  yearly  rent  in  corn  in 
lieu  of  all  service — a  method  which  seems  to  have  been 
ultimately  adopted  with  all  the  indented  servants  of  the 
company.      Dale  was  presently  superseded  by  Sir  Thorn- 
August,  as  Gates,  who  arrived  from  England  with  six  ships,  three 

hundred  and  fifty  people,  and  a  supply  of  cattle   sheep., 
goats,  and  hogs. 


SETTLEMENT  OF   VIRGINIA 


113 


The  heavy  outlay  since  the  new  organization  of  the  CHAPTER 
company,  without  any  return,  gave  occasion  to  loud  com-  ' 
plaints  on  the  part  of  the  stockholders.  They  seem  very  1612. 
unreasonably  to  have  looked  to  the  colony  as  an  immedi- 
ate source  of  mercantile  profit.  The  returned  emigrants 
had  brought  back  many  unfavorable  reports ;  and  Vir- 
ginia, late  the  theme  of  such  romantic  hopes,  fell  into 
very  bad  repute.  It  was  sneered  at  on  the  stage  ;  even 
the  abandonment  of  the  enterprise  was  openly  talked  of. 
Something  must  be  done  to  appease  these  discontents ; 
and  a  supplementary  charter  was  obtained,  under  which 
the  control  of  the  company's  affairs  was  taken  from  the 
council  and  given  to  the  body  of  the  stockholders,  who 
were  to  hold  a  great  and  general  court  once  in  each 
quarter  for  more  important  business,  besides  meetings 
weekly  or  oftener  for  smaller  matters.  The  Bermudas 
were  also  annexed  to  Virginia ;  but  these  islands  soon 
passed  into  the  hands  of  a  particular  association,  and 
were  occupied  by  a  separate  colony.  The  supplementary 
charter  also  authorized  the  company  to  raise  money  by 
lotteries,  now  introduced  into  England  for  the  first  time. 
About  d£30,000,  near  $150,000,  were  subsequently 
raised  by  this  means. 

Captain  Argall,  again  in  Virginia  with  two  ships  on 
private  account,  in  a  new  expedition  to  the  Potomac  to 
trade  for  corn,  found  Pocahontas  there,  of  whom  the  col- 
onists had  seen  nothing  for  two  years.  With  the  as- 
sistance of  the  chief  of  that  district,  whom  he  bribed 
with  a  brass  kettle,  he  enticed  the  Indian  girl  on  board 
his  ship,  and  carried  her  to  Jamestown.  Powhatan  de- 
manded the  release  of  his  daughter,  but  the  colonists 
refused  to  give  her  up  except  in  exchange  for  some 
German  servants  who  had  deserted  to  the  Indians,  and 
the  English  tools  and  arms  of  which  Powhatan's  people 
I.  H 


114  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  had  possessed  themselves,  by  purchase  as  they  alleged, 
'       but,  as  the  English  said,  by  theft.      The  Indian  chief  de- 

1612.  clined  these  terms,   and  vowed   revenge,   but  was   ap- 
peased by  a  fortunate  circumstance.    John  Rolfe,  a  young 
colonist  of  respectable  condition,  having  won  the  favor  of 
the  Indian  majd,  was  encouraged  by  the  governor  to  ask 
her  in  marriage.     Her  father  willingly  consented.     He 
did  not  care,  indeed,  to  trust  himself  in  Jamestown,  but 
he  sent  two  of  his  principal  warriors  as  his  representa- 
tives at  the  marriage  ceremony.      The  young  bride  was 
baptized,  and  by  means  of  this  connection  a  good  under- 
standing was  established  with  Powhatan.      As  yet  there 
were  few,  if  any,  white  women  in  the  colony ;  yet  Rolfe's 
example  was  not  followed.     Intermarriage  was  urged  by 
the  Indians  as  the  only  test  of  sincere  friendship  ;   and 
such  a  course,  as  a  native  historian  of  Virginia  has  re- 
marked,  might  have  prevented  the  subsequent  Indian 
wars,  and  gradually  have  absorbed  the  native  inhabitants 
into  the  growing  body  of  white  colonists.      But  the  idea 
of  such  an  intermixture  was  abhorrent  to  the  English, 
who  despised  the  Indians  as  savages,  and  detested  them 
as  heathen.      They  would  receive  them  only  as  subjects. 
The  Chickahominies,  who  dreaded  the  power  of  Pow- 
hatan, agreed  to  acknowledge  the  superiority  of  the  col- 
ony, and  to  pay  an  annual  tribute  of  corn ;   but  Dale, 
who  resumed  the  government  on  Gates's  departure,  found 
it  necessary  to  use  force  to  extort  even  the  first  payment. 

1613.  Sailing  to  the  eastward  on  a  fishing  voyage,  in  com- 
pany with  a  number  of  other  English  vessels,  Captain 
Argall  broke  up  a  little  station  called  St.  Saveur,  on  the 
island  of  Mount  Desert,  not  far  from  Penobscot  Bay, 
which  two  Jesuit  missionaries  from  Port  Royal,  dissatis- 
fied with  their  treatment  there,  had  just  established,  by 
assistance  of  a  pious  lady  of  France.      Some  of  the 


SETTLEMENT  OF  VIRGINIA. 


115 


Frenchmen  were  allowed  to  seek  a  passage  home  in  the  CHAPTER 
French  fishing  vessels ;   the  others  were  carried  to  Vir-         * 
ginia;   among  the  rest,  one  of  the  Jesuits,  the  other  hav-  1613. 
ing  been  killed  in  the  attack. 

With  three  vessels  and  sixty  men,  piloted  by  his  Jes- 
uit prisoner,  Argall  soon  after  visited  Port  Royal,  which 
he  burned ;  but  the  dispersed  settlers  found  shelter  in 
the  woods.  On  his  homeward  voyage  the  English  com- 
mander entered  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson,  and  compel-  Nov, 
led  the  Dutch  traders,  lately  established  on  the  island 
of  Manhattan,  to  acknowledge  the  authority  of  the  En- 
glish. England  was  at  peace  both  with  France  and  Hol- 
land, but  the  English  claimed  all  that  coast  as  a  part  of 
Virginia.  This  expedition,  forerunner  of  future  bloody 
contests  for  the  possession  of  North  America,  had  no  im- 
mediate results.  Upon  the  departure  of  Argall,  the  Dutch 
flag  was  again  hoisted  at  Manhattan.  The  French  also 
re-established  themselves  at  Port  Royal,  where  they  con- 
tinued to  carry  on  a  prosperous  fur  trade  ;  and  they  soon 
occupied  other  points  of  the  neighboring  coast. 

By  the  original  proposals  of  the  company,  all  persons 
coming  to  Virginia,  or  transporting  others  thither,  were 
entitled,  for  each  person  so  introduced,  to  an  hundred 
acres  of  land.  This  allowance  was  now  limited  to  fifty 
-acres,  at  which  amount  it  remained  fixed  so  long  as  Vir- 
ginia continued  a  British  colony,  subject,  like  all  grants 
of  land  in  Virginia,  to  an  annual  quit-rent,  at  the  rate 
of  two  shillings  for  every  hundred  acres.  Most  of  the  in- 
dented servants  of  the  company  were  now  settled  as  ten- 
ants at  a  corn-rent.  The  governor  had  for  his  support 
a  plantation  cultivated  by  an  hundred  of  these  tenants ; 
and  the  salaries  of  other  colonial  officers  were  paid  by 
similar  assignments.  Besides  the  grants  to  actual  set- 
tlers, the  members  of  the  company  had  received  large 


116  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  tracts  of  land  in  consideration  of  their  payments  into  the 
'       treasury  ;   and  other  large  grants  had  been  made  for  mer- 

1615.  itorious  services,  real  or  pretended.      This  engrossment 
of  lands  very  early  became  a  subject  of  complaint  in  the 
colony.     Meanwhile,  the  cultivation  of  corn  had  so  in- 
creased, that,  from  buyers,  the  colonists  became  sellers  to 
the  Indians.     They  also  had  turned  their  attention  to  the 
cultivation  of  tobacco.     The  Virginia  tobacco,  though  es- 
teemed far  inferior  to  that  of  the  West  Indies,  sold,  how- 
ever, for  three  shillings,  nearly  three  quarters  of  a  dollar, 
per  pound ;  and,  stimulated  by  this  high  price,  the  colo- 
nists entered  into  its  cultivation  with  such  extreme  zeal 
as  soon  to  be  in  danger  of  a  dearth  of  provisions. 

Dale,  who  had  resumed  the  government  after  the  de- 

1616.  parture  of  Gates,  gave  it  up  to  George  Yeardley,  and,  re- 
turning to  England,  took  with  him  Pocahontas,  known 
since  her  marriage  as  the  Lady  Rebecca.     Her  husband 
went  with  her,  and  several  Indian  followers ;   among  the 
rest,  a  chief  sent  by  her  father  to  count  the  people  of 
England.      Pocahontas  attracted  admiration  by  her  mod- 
est and  graceful  demeanor,  and  was  greatly  caressed,  be- 
ing recommended  to  the  queen's  notice  in  a  petition  from 
Captain  Smith,  in  which  he  recounted  her  services  to  the 
colony,  and  especially  to  himself.     In  those  days,  in  which 
the  genius  of  a  Bacon  worshiped  at  the  feet  of  a,  James 
I.,  royalty  even  in  a  savage  was  thought  to  have  some- 
thing sacred  about  it,  and  Rolfe,  we  are  told,  came  near 
being  called  to  account  for  having  presumed,  being  a 
mere  private  person,  to  marry  a  princess.     To  make  some 
provision  for  him,  he  was  appointed  secretary  to  the  col- 
ony, an  office  now  first  created.     When  about  to  return 
to  Virginia,  Pocahontas  died,  leaving  an  infant  son,  who 
was  educated  in  England,  and  became  afterward  a  pros- 
perous person  in  the  colony.     Through  him  and  his  de- 


SETTLEMENT  OF  VIRGINIA.  H7 

«cendants,  the  Bollands  and  Randolphs  of  Virginia  have   CHAPTER 
been  proud  to  trace  their  pedigree  from  the  Indian  princess.         ' 

By  the  influence  of  Lord  Rich,  afterward  Earl  of  1616. 
Warwick,  a  nobleman  much  engaged  in  nautical  enter- 
prises, and  a  large  stockholder  in  the  Virginia  Company, 
but  accused  of  sacrificing  its  interests  to  private  trading 
speculations  of  his  own,  the  office  of  deputy  governor  of 
Virginia  was  conferred  on  Captain  Argall,  already  re- 
peatedly mentioned,  a  kinsman  of  the  treasurer,  and  an 
agent  or  partner  in  the  speculations  of  Rich.  When 
Argall  arrived  at  Jamestown  to  enter  upon  his  office,  he  1617. 
found  the  public  buildings  fallen  to  decay,  and  only  five  May* 
or  six  houses  fit  to  be  inhabited.  The  planters,  who  did 
not  exceed  four  hundred  in  number,  were  chiefly  em- 
ployed in  the  cultivation  of  tobacco,  and  were  scattered 
about  as  best  suited  their  convenience.  Argall  governed 
with  severity,  and,  as  the  colonists  alleged,  with  a  single 
eye  to  private  emolument,  assuming  for  his  own  use 
the  goods  of  the  company,  and  extorting  labor  and  serv- 
ice in  the  company's  name,  but  really  for  his  own  bene- 
fit. He  caused  the  manager  of  the  estate,  which  by 
right  of  his  office  appertained  to  Lord  de  la  War,  to  be 
tried  by  martial  law,  under  Sir  Thomas  Smith's  harsh 
code,  and  to  be  condemned  to  death  for  disrespectful 
words.  An  appeal  was  allowed  to  the  company,  and 
along  with  it  came  loud  complaints  of  Argall's  misbe- 
havior. De  la  War  was  earnestly  entreated  to  resume 
the  personal  exercise  of  his  authority  ;  and  with  that  in- 
tent he  sailed  for  Virginia,  but  died  on  the  passage  off  1618. 
the  entrance  of  the  bay,  already  known  among  the  En-  Apri1' 
glish  by  his  name. 

After  a  warm  struggle  in  the  company,  Yeardley, 
the  former  deputy,  was  appointed  governor,  and,  to  give  1619. 
greater  dignity  to  the  office,  the  honor  of  knighthood  was  January- 


118  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  obtained  for  him.     Yeardley  had  orders  to  sequester  the 
.  goods  of  Argall,  and  to  make  an  inquiry  into  his  conduct; 

1619.  but  Lord  Rich  dispatched  a  vessel  with  timely  notice  to 
his  confederate,  and  a  few  days  before  Yeardley's  arrival, 
Argall  escaped  to  the  West  Indies  with  his  property. 
Presently  he  returned  to  England,  but,  through  the  support 
of  his  patrons,  evaded  all  attempts  to  call  him  to  account. 
Another  controversy  had  arisen  which  aggravated  the 
dispute  growing  out  of  the  conduct  of  Argall.  Though  Sir 
Thomas  Smith  had  disbursed  £80,000,  nearly  $400,000, 
of  the  company's  money,  with  all  this  expenditure  and 
after  twelve  years'  struggle  there  were  but  six  hundred 
colonists  in  Virginia.  Some  fault  was  found  with  the 
treasurer's  vouchers,  and  when  he  offered  to  resign  the 
company  took  him  at  his  word.  At  this  he  was  very 
much  offendedj  and  a  violent  quarrel  ensued  between  his 
friends  and  opponents. 

April  28.  The  vacant  post  of  treasurer  was  conferred  on  Sir 
Edwin  Sandys,  a  man  of  energy  and  liberal  ideas,  who 
entered  with  zeal  on  the  discharge  of  his  office.  The 
holders  of  grants  of  land  in  Virginia  were  induced  to  send 
out  settlers,  and  to  establish  plantations  at  their  private 
expense.  The  cultivation  of  tobacco  seemed  to  promise 
a  profitable  return  ;  and  the  vessels  engaged  in  the  New- 
foundland fisheries  were  availed  of  to  transport  the  emi- 
grants at  a  moderate  cost. 

Yeardley  found  in  the  colony  seven  distinct  plantations, 
to  which  he  presently  added  four  more,  composed  of  new 
emigrants.  At  the  head  of  each  plantation  was  a  com- 
mandant, at  once  chief  of  the  militia  and  civil  magistrate. 
The  tyranny  of  Argall  had  induced  the  company  to  re- 
establish a  local  council  as  a  check  upon  the  governor, 
and  Yeardley  presently  called  the  first  colonial  assembly 
of  Virginia,  composed  of  the  governor,  the  council,  and 


SETTLEMENT    OF   VIRGINIA.  Hg 

deputies  from  the  eleven  plantations.     These  deputies  CHAPTER 
were  called  burgesses — a  name  which  they  continued  to         ' 
retain  after  the  representation  was  distributed  by  coun-  1619. 
ties.     The  acts  of  this  assembly  are  not  extant,  but 
they  are  said  to  have  given  great  satisfaction.      Another 
popular  measure,  suggested  by  the  extortions  of  Argall, 
was  a  full  release,  on  the  part  of  the  company,  of  all 
claims  of  service  from  any  of  the  old  planters. 

During  the  year  that  Sandys  held  office,  he  sent  to 
Virginia  twelve  hundred  emigrants — twice  as  many  as 
there  were  inhabitants  in  the  colony  when  he  became 
treasurer.  Among  them  were  ninety  young  women, 
"  pure  and  uncorrupt,"  who  were  disposed  of  for  the  cost 
of  their  passage,  as  wives  to  the  planters.  The  price  of  a 
wife  was  an  hundred  pounds  of  tobacco,  worth  then  about 
seventy-five  dollars.  But  half  as  much  more  was  obtained 
for  those  of  a  second  cargo  sent  out  a  year  or  two  after. 

There  were  other  emigrants  of  a  sort  less  desirable. 
By  the  king's  special  order,  an  hundred  dissolute  vaga- 
bonds, the  sweepings  of  the  prisons,  familiarly  known 
among  the  colonists  as  "  jail-birds,"  were  sent  to  Vir- 
ginia to  be  sold  as  servants — a  practice  long  continued 
as  a  regular  item  of  British  criminal  jurisprudence,  in 
spite  of  the  repeated  complaints  of  the  colonists,  and  their 
efforts  to  prevent  it. 

By  the  free  consent  and  co-operation  of  the  colonists  1620. 
themselves,  another  and  still  more  objectionable  species 
of  population  was  introduced  into  Virginia,  not  without 
still  enduring  and  disastrous  effects  upon  the  social  con- 
dition of  the  United  States.  Twenty  negroes,  brought 
to  Jamestown  by  a  Dutch  trading  vessel,  and  purchased 
by  the  colonists,  were  held,  not  as  indented  servants  for 
a  term  of  years,  but  as  slaves  for  life. 

Even  so  late  as  the  first  English  migrations  to  Amer- 


120  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  ica,  there  might  have  remained,  in  obscure  corners  of 
'  England,  some  few  hereditary  serfs  attached  to  the  soil, 
1620.  faint  remnants  of  that  system  of  villanage  once  uni- 
versal throughout  Europe,  and  still  prevalent  in  Hun- 
gary and  Russia.  But  villains  in  gross — slaves,  that  is, 
inheriting  from  their  parents  the  condition  of  servitude, 
and  transferable  from  hand  to  hand — had  entirely  disap- 
peared from  England,  not  by  any  formal  legislative  act, 
but  as  the  joint  result  of  private  emancipations  and  the 
discouragement  long  given  by  the  English  courts  to  claims 
so  contrary  to  natural  right.  It  had  come,  indeed,  to  be 
an  established  opinion  throughout  western  Europe  that 
Christians  could  not  be  held  as  slaves — -an  immunity, 
however,  not  thought  to  extend  to  infidels  or  heathen. 
The  practice  of  buying  negroes  on  the  coast  of  Africa, 
introduced  by  the  Portuguese,  had  been  adopted  by  the 
Spanish,  English,  and  Dutch.  There  was  little  induce- 
ment to  bring  them  to  Europe,  where  hired  laborers  might 
be  abundantly  obtained ;  but  in  the  Spanish  and  Portu- 
guese colonies  in  America,  especially  after  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  sugar  manufacture,  the  slave  traders  found  a 
ready  market,  and  the  cultivation  of  tobacco  began  now 
to  open  a  like  market  in  Virginia.  In  buying  and  hold- 
ing negro  slaves,  the  Virginians  did  not  suppose  them- 
selves to  be  violating  any  law,  human  or  divine.  What- 
ever might  be  the  case  with  the  law  of  England,  the  law 
of  Moses,  in  authorizing  the  enslavement  of  "  strangers," 
seemed  to  give  to  the  purchase  of  negro  slaves  an  express 
sanction.  The  number  of  negroes  in  the  colony,  limited 
as  it  was  to  a  few  cargoes,  brought  at  intervals  by  Dutch 
traders,  was  long  too  small  to  make  the  matter  appear 
of  much  moment,  and  more  than  forty  years  elapsed  be- 
fore the  colonists  thought  it  necessary  to  strengthen  the 
system  of  slavery  by  any  express  enactments. 


SETTLEMENT  OF  VIRGINIA.  121 

After  a  year's  seivice  Sandys  was  succeeded  as  treas-  CHAPTER 

urer  by  the  Earl  of  Southampton ;  but  the  same  policy 1__ 

was  persevered  in,  and  during  the  two  following  years  1620. 
twenty-three  hundred  immigrants  were  sent  to  Virginia. 
The  trade  of  the  colony  had  hitherto  been  a  close  monop- 
oly. A  joint  stock,  called  "  The  Magazine,"  had  been 
annually  formed  by  subscriptions  on  the  part  of  the  com- 
pany and  its  members,  and  goods  had  been  purchased 
with  this  joint  stock  and  sent  to  an  agent  in  the  colony, 
known  as  the  "  Cape  merchant,"  who  exchanged  them 
for  tobacco  and  other  produce.  This  trade  had  proved 
a  losing  concern,  and  had  occasioned  great  disputes  and 
dissatisfaction.  It  was  now  abandoned,  and  the  supply 
of  the  colony  thrown  open  to  private  enterprise. 

With  this  access  of  population,  new  plantations  were 
established  on  James  and  York  River  ;  and  some  adven- 
turers, for  convenience  of  trade  with  the  Indians,  fixed 
themselves  on  the  Potomac.  It  was  about  this  time 
that  John  Pory  penetrated  across  the  neck  of  land  which 
separates  the  Potomac  from  the  Patuxent.  He  also  ex- 
plored the  country  south  of  the  Chesapeake,  as  far  as  the 
banks  of  the  Chowan. 

An  estate  of  ten  thousand  acres  near  the  falls  of 
James  River,  with  a  number  of  indented  tenants  to 
cultivate  it,  was  assigned  by  the  company  toward  the 
endowment  of  a  college  for  the  education  of  Indians  as 
well  as  of  colonists.  The  money  contributed  for  the 
same  object  by  some  philanthropic  individuals  in  En- 
gland was  invested  by  the  treasurer  in  the  establish- 
ment of  iron  works,  from  which  great  benefits  were 
hoped  to  the  colony,  and  increase  to  the  fund. 

The  cultivation  of  tobacco  had  given  a  sudden  im- 
pulse to  Virginia ;  but  the  use  of  it  was  still  quite  lim- 
ited, and  the  English  market  was  soon  overstocked.  The 


122  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  price  began  to  fall,  and  great  anxiety  was  evinced  by 
the  enlightened  treasurer  for  the  introduction  into  the 

1620.  colony  of  other  staples — flax,  silk,  wine,  and  the  prepa- 
ration  of  lumber.      New  attempts  were   made   at  the 
manufacture  of  glass,  pitch,  tar,  and  potashes,  and  some 
Italians  and  Dutch  were  sent  out  to  instruct  the  colo- 
nists in  these  operations. 

That  leaven  which  presently  produced  so  remarkable 

1621.  a  revolution  against  monarchical  authority  was  already 
working   in   England,   and    James's   third   Parliament, 
which  met  after  an  interval  of  seven  years — the  same 
which    impeached   Lord  Bacon — protested   against   the 
Virginia  Company's  lotteries   as   an    illegal  raising  of 
money  without  parliamentary  sanction.      The  lotteries 
were  stopped  in  consequence  by  order  in  council,  and 
that  resource  came  to  an  end.     The  colony  still  remained 
a  losing  concern.      The  disputes  between  the  adherents 
of  Sir  Thomas   Smith   and  the  present  administration 
grew  every  day  more  vehement.      The  stockholders  had 
become  quite  numerous,  and  the  affairs  of  the  company 
gave  rise,  in  the  courts  of  proprietors,  to  very  lively  de- 
bates.    The  king  wished  to  dictate  the  choice  of  a  treas- 
urer more  courtly  than  Southampton,  and  less  an  oppo- 
nent of  royal  prerogative.      The  farmers  of  the  customs 
attempted  to  levy  an   excessive  duty  on  tobacco,  and 
the  company,  to  escape  it,  sent  theirs  to  Holland.      An 
order  in  council  forbade  the  exportation  of  colonial  pro- 
duce to  foreign  countries  unless  it  had  first  paid  duties 
in  England — the  first  germ  of  that  colonial  system  aft. 
erward  sanctioned  by  parliamentary  enactment,  and  ono 
of  the  principal  features  in  the  subsequent  relations  of 
the  mother   country  to  the  colonies.      Other  orders  in 
council,  more  favorable  to  Virginia,  but  having  in  view 
the  same  object  of  augmenting  the  royal  revenue,  pro- 


SETTLEMENT  OF  VIRGINIA. 


123 


hibited  the  importation  of  Spanish  tobacco,  or  its  cultiva-  CHAPTER 
tion  in  England.  ' 

Southampton  and  his  adherents  in  the  Virginia  Com-  1621. 
pany  belonged  to  the  rising  party  in  favor  of  parliament- 
ary and  popular  rights  as  opposed  to  the  royal  preroga- 
tive. With  more  conformity  to  their  principles  than  is 
always  displayed  in  like  cases,  they  induced  the  com- 
pany to  confirm,  by  special  ordinance,  the  privilege  of  a 
General  Assembly,  already  conceded  to  the  colony  by 
Yeardley,  probably  at  their  suggestion.  This  ordinance, 
sent  out  by  Sir  Francis  Wyatt,  appointed  to  supersede 
Yeardley  as  governor,  granted  a  constitution  to  Virginia, 
modeled  after  that  of  the  mother  country,  and  itself  the 
model,  or  at  least  the  prototype,  of  most  of  the  govern- 
ments of  English  origin  subsequently  established  in 
America.  For  the  enactment  of  local  laws,  the  govern- 
or and  council  appointed  by  the  company  were  to  be 
joined  by  delegates  chosen  by  the  people,  the  whole  to 
be  known  as  the  General  Assembly.  For  many  years 
they  sat  together  as  one  body,  but  for  the  passage  of  any 
law  the  separate  assent  of  the  deputies,  the  council,  and 
the  governor  was  required.  Even  enactments  thus  sanc- 
tioned might  still  be  set  aside  by  the  company.  The 
governor  and  council  acted  as  a  court  of  law,  and  held 
quarterly  sessions  for  that  purpose  ;  but  an  appeal  lay 
to  the  General  Assembly,  and  thence  to  the  company. 
The  laws  of  England  were  considered  to  be  in  force  in  the 
colony,  the  colonial  legislation  extending  only  to  local 
matters. 

Simultaneously  with  this  civil  constitution  an  eccle- 
siastical organization  was  introduced.  The  plantations 
were  divided  into  parishes,  for  the  endowment  of  which 
contributions  were  collected  in  England.  A  glebe  of  an 
hundred  acres,  cultivated  by  six  indented  tenants,  was 


124  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  allowed  by  the  company  to  each  clergyman,  to  which 
was  added  a  salary ,  to  be  paid  by  a  parish  tax.  The 
1621.  governor  was  instructed  to  uphold  public  worship  ac- 
cording to  the  forms  and  discipline  of  the  Church,  of  En- 
gland, and  to  avoid  "  all  factious  and  needless  novelties" 
— a  caution,  no  doubt,  against  Puritan  ideas,  at  this  time 
much  on  the  increase  in  England,  and  not  without  par- 
tisans even  in  Virginia. 

A  plantation  of  fifteen  hundred  acres,  cultivated  by 
fifty  indented  tenants,  was  assigned  as  a  salary  to  the 
colonial  treasurer ;  an  office  filled  by  George  Sandys, 
known  in  English  literature  as  the  translator  of  Ovid, 
and  for  some  years  a  resident  in  Virginia.  A  like  sal- 
ary was  appointed  for  the  marshal,  the  chief  executive 
officer  of  law  and  police.  Five  hundred  acres,  with 
twenty  indented  tenants,  were  assigned  to  the  colonial 
physician.  When  Wyatt  came  to  take  over  the  plan- 
tation which  constituted,  in  whole  or  in  part,  the  gov- 
ernor's salary,  only  forty-six  tenants  out  of  the  hundred 
were  found  upon  it — a  deficiency,  however,  which  Yeard- 
ley  declined  to  make  up. 

The  new  governor  was  instructed  to  restrict  the  plant- 
ers to  a  hundred  weight  of  tobacco  for  each  man  em- 
ployed in  its  cultivation  ;  to  turn  the  attention  of  the 
colonists  to  corn,  mulberry  trees,  vines,  and  cattle ;  and 
to  look  after  the  glass  and  iron  works.  He  was  also  to 
cultivate  a  good  understanding  with  the  natives  ;  but  this 
injunction,  unfortunately,  came  too  late. 

Powhatan  was  dead.  His  successor  was  Opechanca- 
nough,  a  bold  and  cunning  chief,  always  hostile  to  the 
English.  Blood  had  several  times  been  shed  on  both 
sides,  especially  in  the  earlier  years  of  the  colony,  but 
as  yet  there  had  been  no  formidable  or  protracted  hos- 
tilities. The  colonists,  confident  in  their  fire-arms,  re- 


SETTLEMENT   OF   VIRGINIA.  125 

garded  with  contempt  the  bows  and  clubs  of  the  Indians.  CHAPTER 

The  Indian  villages,  with  their  corn-fields  of  cleared  lands, 

fertile  spots  along  the  banks  of  the  rivers,  offered  tempt-  1621. 
ing  locations  to  the  new  comers.  Quite  unsuspicious  of 
danger  from  a  people  whose  simplicity  they  derided,  and 
whose  patience  they  despised,  the  colonists  had  neglected 
their  military  exercises,  and  had  dropped  all  precautions 
for  defense.  In  disregard  of  the  proclamations  which 
forbade  teaching  the  Indians  the  use  of  fire-arms,  they 
were  employed  as  fowlers  and  huntsmen  by  the  colonists, 
and  freely  admitted  to  the  plantations.  Provoked  by  the 
murder  of  one  of  their  principal  warriors,  and  taking  ad-  1622. 
vantage  of  this  carelessness  and  familiarity,  at  an  hour  rc^  22 
appointed  beforehand  they  fell  at  once  upon  every  settle- 
ment. A  converted  Indian  gave  warning  the  night  be- 
fore, in  season  to  save  Jamestown  and  a  few  of  the  neigh- 
boring plantations,  otherwise  the  massacre  might  have 
been  much  more  extensive.  As  it  was,  three  hundred  and 
fifty  persons  perished  in  the  first  surprise,  including  six 
counselors.  Several  settlements,  though  taken  unawares, 
made  a  brave  resistance,  and  repulsed  the  assailants. 

A  bloody  war  ensued,  of  the  details  of  which  we  know 
little.  Sickness  and  famine  added  their  horrors,  and 
within  a  brief  period  the  colonists  were  reduced  from 
four  thousand  to  twenty-five  hundred,  concentrated,  for 
convenience  of  defense,  in  six  settlements.  The  uni- 
versity estate  was  abandoned,  the  glass  and  iron  works 
were  destroyed.  But  the  white  men  soon  recovered  their 
wonted  superiority.  The  Indians,  treacherously  entrap- 
ped, were  slain  without  mercy.  Driven  from  the  James 
and  York  Rivers,  their  fields  and  villages  were  occupied 
by  the  colonists.  Greatly  reduced  in  number,  they  were 
soon  disabled  from  doing  much  damage,  but  no  settled 
peace  was  made  till  fourteen  years  had  expired. 


126  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER       The  breaking  out  of  this  war  and  the  threatened  ruin 
of  the  colony  served  to  aggravate  the  dissensions  of  the 

1623.  company,  which  presently  reached  a  high  pitch.      The 
minority  appealed  to  the  king,  who  ordered  the  records 

May.    to  be  seized,  and  appointed  commissioners  to  investigate 

Oct.     the  company's  affairs.      Other  commissioners  were  soon 

after  appointed,  to  proceed  to  Virginia,  to  examine  on  the 

spot  the  condition  of  the  colony,  the  control  of  which  the 

king  had  determined  to  assume. 

1624.  About  the  time  of  the  arrival  of  these  commissioners 
March.  tjie  £rgt  extant  laws  of  Virginia  were  enacted.    Thirty- 
five  acts,  very  concisely  expressed,  repealed  all  prior  laws, 
and  shed  a  clear  and  certain  light  upon  the  condition  of 
the  colony.      The  first  acts,  as  in  many  subsequent  codi- 
fications of  the  Virginia  statutes,  relate  to  the  Church. 
In  every  plantation  there  was  to  be  a  room  or  house 
"  for  the  worship  of  God,  sequestered  and  set  apart  for 
that  purpose,  and  not  to  be  for  any  temporal  use  whatso- 
ever ;"  also  a  place  of  burial,  "sequestered  and  paled  in." 
Absence  from  public  worship,   "  without  allowable  ex- 
cuse," exposed  to  the  forfeiture  of  a  pound  of  tobacco,  or 
fifty  pounds  if  the  absence  continued  for  a  month.     The 
celebration  of  Divine  service  was  to  be  in  conformity  to 
the  canons  of  the  English  Church.      In  addition  to  the 
usual  Church  festivals,  the  22d  of  March  was  to  be  an- 
nually observed  in  commemoration  of  the  escape  of  the 
colony  from  Indian  massacre.      No  minister  was  to  be 
absent  from  his  parish  above  two  months  annually,  under 
pain  of  forfeiting  half  his  salary,  or  the  whole  of  it,  .and 
his  cure  also,  if  absent  four  months.     He  who  disparaged 
a  minister  without  proof  was  to  be  fined  five  hundred 
pounds  of  tobacco,  and  to  beg  the  minister's  pardon  pub- 
licly before  the  congregation.     The  ministers'  salaries 
were  to  be  paid  out  of  the  first  gathered  and  best  tobacco 


SETTLEMENT    OF    VIRGINIA.  127 

and  corn ;   and  no  man  was  to  dispose  of  his  tobacco  be-  CHAPTER 
fore  paying  his  Church  dues,  under  pain  of  paying  double.  , 

The  proclamations  formerly  set  forth  against  drunken-  1624. 
ness  and  swearing  were  confirmed  as  law,  and  the  church- 
wardens were  to  present  all  such  offenders. 

The  governor  was  to  lay  no  taxes  of  any  kind,  except 
by  authority  of  the  assembly ;  and  the  expenditure,  as 
well  as  levy  of  all  public  money,  was  to  be  by  order  of 
that  body  only.  The  governor  was  not  to  withdraw  the 
inhabitants  from  their  private  employments  for  any  work 
of  his  own,  under  any  color;  and  if,  in  the  intervals  of 
the  assembly,  men  were  needed  for  the  public  service, 
the  whole  council  must  concur  in  the  levy.  The  old 
planters,  before  Sir  Thomas  Gates's  last  coming,  "  and 
their  posterity,"  were  to  be  exempt  from  personal  service 
in  the  Indian  war  except  as  officers — a  provision  after- 
ward several  times  re-enacted,  with  the  omission,  how- 
ever, of  the  hereditary  clause.  The  burgesses  were  priv- 
ileged from  arrest  going  to,  coming  from,  and  during  the 
assembly.  For  convenience  of  "the  more  distant  parts," 
Elizabeth  City,  at  the  mouth  of  James  River,  and  Charles 
City,  at  the  junction  of  the  Appomattox,  monthly  courts 
were  to  be  holden  by  special  commissioners,  as  an  in- 
termediate tribunal  between  commanders  of  plantations 
and  the  quarterly  courts  held  by  the  governor  and  coun- 
cil. Every  private  planter's  dividend  of  land  was  to  be 
surveyed  and  the  bounds  recorded.  To  encourage  the 
production  of  corn,  its  price  was  to  be  unrestricted,  but 
all  other  prices  were  to  remain  as  fixed  by  existing  proc- 
lamations. In  every  parish  was  to  be  a  public  granary, 
to  which  each  planter  above  eighteen  was  to  bring  yearly 
one  bushel  of  corn,  to  be  disposed  of  for  the  public  use 
by  the  vote  of  the  major  part  of  the  freemen,  or,  if  not 
used,  to  be  returned  to  the  owner  when  the  new  bushel 


128  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

CHAPTER  was  brought  in.    Three  sufficient  men  were  to  be  sworn 

in  each  parish,  to  see  that  every  settler  planted  and  tended 

1624.  corn  enough  for  his  family.  All  trade  in  corn  with  the 
Indians  was  prohibited.  Every  freeman  was  to  fence  in 
a  garden  of  a  quarter  of  an  acre,  for  the  planting  of  grape- 
vines, roots,  herbs,  and  mulberry  trees.  Men  were  to  be 
appointed  in  each  parish  to  "  censure"  the  tobacco — the 
first  trace  of  the  tobacco  inspections.  Ships  were  to  break 
bulk  only  at  James  City.  Weights  and  measures  were 
to  be  sealed. 

Every  dwelling-house  was  to  be  palisadoed  for  defense  j 
and  none  were  to  go  abroad,  except  in  parties  .and  arm- 
ed, not  even  to  work ;  nor  were  the  inhabitants  of  any 
plantation  to  go  on  board  ships,  or  elsewhere,  in  such 
numbers  as  to  leave  their  houses  exposed  to  attack. 
Each  commander  was  to  keep  his  plantation  supplied 
with  arms  and  ammunition ;  and  watch  was  to  be  kept 
at  night.  No  powder  was  to  be  spent  unnecessarily  at 
drinking  frolics  or  other  entertainments.  Delinquent 
"  persons  of  quality,  not  fit  to  undergo  corporeal  punish- 
ment," might  be  imprisoned  by  the  commanders  at  their 
discretion,  or  fined  by  the  monthly  courts.  Every  plant- 
er who  had  not  found  a  man  for  the  castle  was  to  pay 
for  himself  and  servants  five  pounds  of  tobacco  per  head. 
At  the  beginning  of  July,  the  inhabitants  of  every  plant- 
ation were  to  fall  upon  "their  adjoining  salvages,"  as  they 
did  last  year.  Any  persons  wounded  in  this  service  were 
to  be  cured  at  the  public  charge,  and  if  permanently 
lamed,  were  to  have  a  maintenance  suitable  to  their  qual- 
ity. To  pay  the  expenses  and  debts  occasioned  by  the 
war,  ten  pounds  of  tobacco  per  head  were  to  be  levied  on 
each  male  colonist. 

Evident  allusion  appears  in  this  code  to  the  controversy 
then  pending  between  the  king  and  the  company.  No 


SETTLEMENT  OF  VIRGINIA.  129 

person,  upon  rumor  of  supposed  change,  was  to  presume  CUAPTER 
to  be  disobedient  to  the  present  government,  nor  servants         ' 
to  their  masters,  "  at  their  uttermost  peril."     The  last  1624. 
law  of  the  code  levies  a  tax  of  four  pounds  of  tobacco  per 
head,  to  pay  the  expense  of  sending  an  agent  to  England 
to  look  after  the  interests  of  the  colony,  and  to  solicit  the 
exclusion  of  foreign  tobacco.     The  king's  commissioners 
to  examine  into  the  state  of  the  colony  seem  to  have 
been  looked  upon  with  some  suspicion ;  and  the  clerk  of 
the  assembly,  for  betrayal  of  his  trust  in  furnishing  them 
with  copies  of  certain  papers,  was  punished  with  the  loss 
of  his  ears.     The  colonists  had  some  reason  to  fear  lest 
the  recall  of  the  company's  charter  might  deprive  them 
of  their  share  in  colonial  legislation,  so  recently  granted, 
or  might  even  endanger  their  titles  to  land. 

The  reports  of  the  commissioners  were  as  unfavorable 
as  the  king  could  desire.  In  vain  the  stockholders  ap- 
pealed to  James's  fourth  Parliament,  then  in  session, 
little  sympathy  being  felt  in  that  body  for  monopolies 
or  exclusive  corporations  of  any  sort.  The  action  of 
the  company  suspended  by  proclamation,  it  was  soon 
called  upon  to  answer  to  a  process  of  Quo  Warranto—& 
legal  inquiry,  that  is,  into  its  conduct  and  pretensions. 
The  respondents  had  little  to  hope  from  judges  who  held 
office  at  the  pleasure  of  the  royal  complainant,  and  the 
proceedings  were  soon  closed  by  a  judgment  of  forfeit- 
ure. Thus  fell  the  Virginia  Company,  after  spending  1625. 
£150,000,  nearly  $750,000,  in  establishing  the  colony. 
This  did  not  include  the  expenditures  of  private  individ- 
uals to  a  large  amount,  some  of  whom  obtained,  perhaps, 
a  return  for  their  money,  while  the  outlay  of  the  com- 
pany was  a  dead  loss. 

The  agent  sent  to  England  on  behalf  of  the  colonists 
died  on  his  passage ;  but  it  was  the  policy  of  the  king 
I.  I 


130  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  to  reconcile  the  inhabitants  to  the  change,   and  in  his 

IV 

'      instructions  to  Wyatt,  whom  he  continued  in  office,  the 

1624.  governor  and  council  were  restricted  to  such  authority 
as  they  had  exercised  during  five  years  past — the  pre- 
cise period  since  the  ordinance  of  the  company  establish- 
ing  an  assembly.     That  body,  accordingly,  though  no 
express  mention  was  made  of  it  in  the  royal  instruc- 
tions, continued  to  meet  as  before.     When  Charles  I. 

1625.  shortly  after  succeeded  to  the  throne,  Wyatt's  commis- 
sion was  renewed  in  the  same  terms.     He  soon  obtained 

1626.  leave  to  return  home,  and  Yeardley,  the  former  popular 
governor,  was  appointed  his  successor.     Upon  Yeardley's 

1627.  death  the  next  year,  the  council,  under  their  power  of 
filling  vacancies  till  new  appointments  could  be  made 
from  England,  elected   as  temporary  governor  Francis 
West,  a  kinsman  of  Lord  De  la  War. 

A  letter  to  the  king,  signed  by  West  and  his  council, 
gives  but  an  unfavorable  account  of  the  industry  of  the 
colony.  The  freight  of  staves  and  clapboards  was  too 
high  to  allow  them  to  be  exported  at  a  profit ;  the  per- 
sons sent  out  to  plant  and  tend  vines  either  did  not  un- 
derstand the  business  or  "  concealed  their  skill;"  the  In- 
dian war  had  broken  up  the  iron  works  and  the  manu- 
facture of  potashes  ;  while  dangers  from  the  Indians  and 
difficulties  of  carriage  made  the  production  of  tar  and 
pitch  unadvisable.  Thus  came  to  an  end  the  repeated 
efforts  and  costly  experiments,  made  at  the  late  com- 
pany's expense,  for  the  introduction  of  various  staples. 
The  Indian  war,  still  carried  on  with  great  animosity 
on  both  sides,  and  the  want  of  enterprise,  capital,  and 
perseverance,  so  essential  to  the  introduction  of  any  new 
branch  of  industry,  confined  Virginia  to  the  single  staple 
of  tobacco,  justly  denounced  by  one  of  her  native  histo- 
rians as  "  a  nauseous,  unpalatable  weed,  neither  of  ne- 


SETTLEMENT   OF  VIRGINIA. 
cessity  nor  ornament  to  human  life."      But  it  was  of  CHAPTER 

-  jy 

easy  cultivation,  the  production  of  it  might  be  engaged  ' 
in  with  very  little  capital,  and,  though  declining  in  price,  1627. 
it  ensured  a  quick  and  certain  return,  and  a  supply  of 
clothing  and  other  imported  articles  essential  to  the  col- 
onists. The  trade,  however,  in  tobacco,  apart  from  fluc- 
tuations in  demand  and  supply,  was  very  much  at  the 
mercy  of  the  king.  In  hopes  of  an  increase  of  revenue, 
he  assumed  to  regulate  it  by  frequent  and  sometimes 
contradictory  proclamations.  He  even  proposed  to  be- 
come the  sole  purchaser  of  tobacco  at  a  stipulated  price ; 
but  this  proposal  was  rejected  by  the  assembly. 

Dr.  John  Potts,  elected  by  the  council,  succeeded  1629, 
West  as  temporary  governor,  which  office  he  held  till 
the  arrival  of  John  Harvey,  late  one  of  the  investigating 
commissioners,  and  now  appointed  to  the  government  of 
the  colony.  Shortly  after  Harvey's  arrival,  his  prede- 
cessor was  tried  by  a  jury  of  thirteen,  of  whom  three 
were  counselors,  upon  a  charge  of  cattle-stealing.  After 
one  day  spent  in  pleading,  and  another  in  "  recrimina- 
tions" and  "  unnecessary  disputation,"  so  the  record  in- 
forms us,  the  ex-governor  was  found  guilty ;  but,  "  in 
regard  of  his  quality  and  practice"— he  was  probably  the 
colonial  physician — sentence  was  respited  till  the  king's 
pleasure  could  be  known,  all  the  council  becoming  his 
sureties.  The  result  does  not  appear,  nor,  indeed,  the 
ground  of  the  verdict.  Potts's  name  recurs  no  more  as 
counselor,  but  he  is  subsequently  mentioned  as  a  cred- 
itor of  the  colony  to  whom  payment  is  ordered ;  not, 
however,  it  is  cautiously  added,  "  till  his  account  be  pro- 
duced." 

Harvey  built  a  fort  at  Point  Comfort,  at  the  entrance  1630. 
of  James  River,  and,  to  supply  it  with  ammunition,  a  fee 
or  payment  in  powder  and  ball  was  demanded  of  every 


HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  ship  that  passed.     The  commander  was   authorized  to 
tender  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and  supremacy  to  all  per- 

1630.  sons  arriving  in  the  colony,  and  to  send  all  vessels  to 
Jamestown  before  they  landed  any  part  of  their  cargoes. 
Salt-works  were  also  established  at  Accomac,  on  the  east- 
ern shore  of  Chesapeake  Bay. 

1632.       The  next  matter  of  moment  was  a  revisal  of  the  laws, 
consolidating  the  whole  into  a  single  statute — a  judicious 
process  several  times  repeated  in  Virginia.     In  addition 
to  the  enactments  of  1624,  most  of  which  were  contin- 
ued in  force,  the  minister  of  each  parish  was  required  to 
keep  a  record,  and  the  church -wardens  to  make  an  an- 
nual return  of  all  marriages,  christenings,  and  burials. 
The  publication  of  bans,  or  a  license,  was  required  to 
authorize  the  celebration  of  a  marriage ;  and  in  case  of 
minors,  the  consent  of  parents  and  guardians.     Ministers 
were  to  preach  at  least  one  sermon  every  Sunday,  to  ad- 
minister the  communion  three  times  a  year,  to  catechize 
the  children,  and  visit  the  sick.     They  were  not  to  give 
themselves  "  to  excess  in  drinking  or  riot,  spending  their 
time  idly  by  day  or  night,  playing  at  cards,  dice,  or  other 
unlawful  games  ;  but  to  read  or  hear  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
or  to  employ  themselves  in  other  honorable  studies  or  ex- 
ercise, bearing  in  mind  that  they  ought  to  be  examples 
to  the  people  to  live  well  and  Christianly."     Besides  ten 
pounds  of  tobacco  and  a  bushel  of  corn  for  every  titha- 
ble  in  their  parishes — including  under  that  head  all  males 
over  sixteen — the  ministers  were  also  to  have  the  twen- 
tieth calf,  pig,  and  kid,  with  fees  for  marrying,  christ- 
ening, and  burying ;  but,  so  far  as  related  to  live  stock, 
this  provision  was  soon  repealed.     Defective   churches 
were  to  be  rebuilt  and  repaired;  and  religious  ceremo- 
nies to  be  performed  only  in  the  churches.     The  church- 
wardens were  to  take  an  oath  to  present  all  who  led  pro- 


SETTLEMENT  OF  VIRGINIA. 


133 


fane  and  ungodly  lives,  common  swearers  and  drunkards,  CHAPTER 
blasphemers,  adulterers,  fornicators,  slanderers,  tale-bear-r^__L— 
ers ;  all  such  as  "  do  not  behave  themselves  orderly  and  1632. 
soberly  during  divine  service,"  and  all  masters  and  mis- 
tresses delinquent  in  catechizing  children  and  "  ignorant 
persons"  under  their  charge.      Drunkenness  was  to  be 
fined  five  shillings,  and  each  oath  one  shilling.      These 
provisions  evince  the  powerful  hold  taken  upon  the  En- 
glish mind  by  those  ideas  which,  under  their  more  ex- 
aggerated form,  obtained  the  name  of  Puritanism  ;  ideas 
not  without  a  powerful  influence  upon  every  Anglo-Amer- 
ican colony,  and  very  far  from  being  so  exclusively  con- 
fined to  New  England  as  some  have  supposed. 

Certain  provisions  against  forestalling  and  engrossing 
contained  in  this  code  underwent,  during  the  twelve 
years  following,  various  modifications,  when  they  were 
finally  repealed  and  abandoned.  It  was  also  attempted 
by  legislative  enactments  to  limit  the  production  of  to- 
bacco, improve  its  quality,  and  raise  the  price,  which  had 
now  fallen  to  sixpence  per  pound.  The  English  consump- 
tion of  this  article  continued  to  increase  ;  but  the  Vir- 
ginians found  a  dangerous  competition  not  only  from  the 
colony  of  Bermuda,  but  from  the  English  planters  lately 
established  on  the  Island  of  Barbadoes,  a  settlement  which 
had  a  very  rapid  growth,  and  soon  surpassed  Virginia  in 
numbers.  Other  English  settlers  in  the  West  Indies  es- 
tablished themselves  on  St.  Kitt's,  Antigua,  Montserrat, 
and  Nevis,  known  as  the  Leeward  Islands.  French  plant- 
ers, about  the  same  time,  began  to  occupy  part  of  St. 
Kitt's,  Guadaloupe,  and  Martinique.  The  cultivation  of 
tobacco  was  the  main  object  in  these  first  attempts  to  colo- 
nize the  islands  of  the  Caribbee  group,  which  had  remained 
till  this  time  in  possession  of  their  native  inhabitants. 
To  secure  a  supply  of  provisions,  every  planter  was 


£34  HISTORY    OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  required,  by  a  special  clause  of  the  new  code,  to  cultivate 
'  two  acres  of  corn  per  poll.  Nor  was  the  idea  of  other  sta- 
1632.  pies  neglected  ;  twenty  vine-plants  were  to  be  cultivated 
for  every  tithable.  No  artificer  or  laborer,  having  under- 
taken a  piece  of  work,  was  to  abandon  it  unfinished,  un- 
der penalty  of  a  month's  imprisonment,  fine,  and  costs. 
Hides  and  skins  were  not  to  be  exported.  Wild  hogs 
were  not  to  be  killed  without  a  license.  A  bounty  was 
offered  for  killing  wolves.  No  person  was  to  speak  or 
parley  with  the  Indians,  and  the  commanders  were  to  fall 
upon  any  who  might  be  found  lurking  about  the  planta- 
tions. These  commanders  were  to  exercise  their  men  on 
holidays,  and  to  make  an  annual  return  of  the  whole 
population  within  their  respective  jurisdictions.  High- 
ways were  to  be  laid  out  by  the  governor  and  council, 
by  the  monthly  courts,  or  in  each  parish  by  a  vote  of  the 
inhabitants.  No  master  of  a  vessel  was  to  carry  out  of 
the  colony  any  person  who  had  not  given  ten  days'  notice 
of  his  intention  to  depart,  under  penalty  of  paying  his 
debts  ;  nor  was  any  person  to  emigrate  to  New  England. 
or  any  other  plantation,  except  by  leave  of  the  governor. 
The  fees  of  public  officers  were  regulated.  The  estates 
of  all  deceased  persons  were  to  be  appraised,  and,  when 
they  died  insolvent,  to  be  sold  at  auction. 

This  revised  code  was  to  be  read  at  the  beginning  of 
every  monthly  court,  the  commissioners  for  which  were 
to  be  furnished  with  a  manuscript  copy,  open  to  public 
inspection.  Such,  for  many  years,  was  the  only  method 
of  publishing  the  laws  in  Virginia. 

These  enactments  relate  only  to  local  matters.  So 
far  as  regarded  personal  rights,  the  rights  of  property, 
and  the  punishment  of  crimes,  the  law  of  England  was 
in  force  in  the  colony.  The  assembly  claimed  no  au- 
thority to  legislate  upon  any  of  those  subjects.  Yet  that 


SETTLEMENT  OF  VIRGINIA. 

body  exercised,  upon  some  occasions,  a  pretty  arbitrary  CHAPTER 
power,  of  which  we  have  an  instance  in  an  order  for         ' 
drafting  every  fortieth  man  in  the  colony  to  establish  a  1632. 
settlement  at  Middle  Plantation,  half  way  from  James 
to  York  River — subsequently  under  the  name  of  Will- 
iamsburg,  the  capital  of  Virginia. 

Two  years  after,  the  colony  was  divided  into  eight  1634. 
counties  —  Elizabeth    City,   Warwick,    James    City, 
Charles   City,  and  Henrico,  along  the  north  bank  of 
James  River  ;  Isle  of  Wight,  on  the  south  bank  ;  York, 
on  York  River  ;  and  Accomac,  on  the  eastern  shore. 

Of  the  country  north  of  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  little 
was  yet  known.     Harvey  had  a  chart  on  which  Dela- 
ware Bay  was  laid  down ;  and  to  ascertain  if  there  was  1632. 
a  river  there,  he  sent  a  sloop  to  explore  it.     This  sloop    SePt- 
never  returned ;  but  Harvey  was  informed,  by  the  arri- 
val, the  next  spring,  at  Jamestown,  of  Captain  De  Vries,  1633. 
in  a  Dutch  yacht,  that  the  Delaware  Bay  and  River  had    APril- 
been  for  some  years  frequented  by  Dutch  traders.      De 
Vries  himself  had  sailed  thither  to  engage  in  the  whale 
fishery ;  but,  finding  that  a  settlement,  established  the 
year  before  near  Cape  Henlopen,  had  been  destroyed  by 
the  Indians,  and  that  an  older  Dutch  fort  higher  up  had 
been  abandoned,  leaving  his  ship  to  fish,  he  had  come  in 
his  yacht  to  Jamestown  to  purchase  corn.     Harvey,  in 
conversation  with  De  Vries,  to  whom  he  showed  all  hos- 
pitality, stoutly  maintained  the  better  title  of  the  En- 
glish ;   but  still  he  seemed  to  think  that  there  was  land 
enough  for  both.      Two  years  after,  a  party  from  Vir-  1635. 
ginia    occupied,   for    a    little    while,   the    still   deserted 
Dutch  fort  on  the  Delaware ;  but  they  were  soon  taken 
prisoners  by  a  force  from  Manhattan,  and  sent  home 
to  Virginia  ;    nor  was  the  attempt  at  occupation   re- 
newed. 


13(3  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


CHAPTER  V. 

SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND. 

CHAPTER   JL  WO  years  after  the  arrival  of  the  first  English  colo- 
ny  in  Virginia,  the  same  year  in  which  the  Hudson 

1609.  River  was  discovered,  the  Dutch,  after  a  long  and  tedi- 
ous struggle,  continued  for  more  than  forty  years,  had 
obtained  from  the  proud  Spanish  court  a  truce,  amount- 
ing, in  substance,  to  an  acknowledgment  of  their  inde- 
pendence.    The  Dutch  East  India  Company,  already  in 
active  operation,  was  fast  snatching  from  the  Portuguese 
the  lucrative  commerce  of  India  and  the  Oriental  islands. 
The  Bank  of  Amsterdam  had  been  lately  established. 
The  merchants  of  Holland,  enriched  by  an  extensive  and 
profitable  carrying  trade,   and  now  taking  the  lead  in 
maritime  commerce,  sought  every  where  new  openings 
for  traffic. 

The  North  American  river  discovered  by  Hudson  while 
sailing  under  the  Dutch  flag  at  once  attracted  attention, 

1610.  and  the  very  next  year  after  its  discovery  Dutch  ships 
were  sent  to  trade  with  the  Indians  there.     For  the  con- 

1613.  venience  of  this  traffic,  little  forts,  or  fortified  trading 
houses  were  built,  one  especially  on  the  Island  of  Man- 
hattan, at  the  river's  mouth. 

Nov.  Hardly  was  occupation  thus  taken  when  the  Dutch 
traders  under  Hendrick  Corstiaensen  received  a  visit  from 
Argall,  who  compelled  them,  as  mentioned  in  the  previ- 
ous chapter,  to  haul  down  their  flag.  Argall  claimed  all 
that  region  as  appertaining  to  the  English,  and  a  part 
of  their  province  of  Virginia ;  but  the  Dutch  flag  was 
hoisted  again  as  soon  as  he  was  gone. 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.     137 

On  the  strength  of  an  ordinance  of  the  States-General,  CHAPTER 
assuring  to  any  discoverers  of  new  lands  the  exclusive  ' 
privilege  of  four  trading  voyages  thither,  an  Amsterdam  1614. 
company  dispatched  five  vessels  to  explore  the  North 
American  coasts.  Three  of  these  vessels,  under  Corsti- 
aensen  as  chief  commander,  were  employed  in  explora- 
tions north  of  Cape  Cod ;  but  in  these  they  had  been 
preceded  by  the  French  and  English.  Block  and  Mey 
sailed  for  Manhattan.  Shortly  after  their  arrival,  Block's 
vessel  was  accidentally  burned;  but  that  enterprising 
commander  soon  replaced  it  by  a  yacht  of  sixteen  tons 
which  he  built  on  the  coast,  and  called  "  The  Restless." 
He  passed  in  this  little  vessel  through  the  East  River,  to 
which  he  gave  the  name  of  Hellegat,  and  then,  coasting 
the  northern  shore  of  Long  Island  Sound,  discovered  first 
the  Housatonic  and  then  the  Connecticut,  which  he  as- 
cended for  some  distance,  and  named  Fresh  River,  in 
contrast  to  the  Hudson,  whose  waters  were  salt.  Con- 
tinuing to  the  eastward,  he  discovered  and  explored  Nar- 
rag-anset  Bay,  which  he  called  the  Bay  of  Nassau,  and 
off  Cape  Cod  fell  in  with  and  embarked  for  Holland  in 
Corstiaensen's  ship.  The  name  of  Block  Island  still 
commemorates  these  explorations.  Mey,  the  companion 
of  Block,  after  examining  the  south  shore  of  Long  Isl- 
and, entered  Delaware  Bay,  of  which  the  northern  cape 
still  bears  his  name. 

The  company  at  whose  expense  these  explorations  had 
been  made,  obtained,  in  consequence,  from  the  States-Gen- 
eral, an  exclusive  privilege  of  trade  for  three  years  to  all  Oct.  11. 
that  part  of  the  North  American  coast  included  between 
the  fortieth  and  forty-fifth  degrees  of  north  latitude — a 
region  named  in  this  grant  NEW  NETHERLAND.  The 
Hudson  was  called  the  Mauritius,  after  Maurice,  prince 
of  Orange,  the  Dutch  stadtholder ;  but  it  soon  became 


I  |8  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  known  among  the  Dutch  as  the  North  River,  in  distinc- 
'       tion  from  the  Delaware,  which  they  called  the  South  River. 

1615.  Measures  were  taken  to  improve  this  monopoly  to  the 
utmost;  and  Jacob  Elkins,  sent  out  the  next  year  on 
behalf  of  these  adventurers,  ascended  the  Mauritius,  and 
built  a  fortified  trading  house  on  an  island  at  the  head 
of  navigation,  not  far  from  the  present  site  of  Albany. 
The  establishment  of  this  post,  removed,  a  year  or  two 

1618.  afterward,  to  the  main  land  on  the  west  bank  of  the 
river,  first  brought  the  Dutch  into  contact  with  the  Mo- 
hawks, the  easternmost  of  the  affiliated  tribes  of  the  Iro- 
quois  or  Five  Nations.  Remarkable  for  their  savage 
prowess,  ferocious  courage,  and  passion  for  warlike  en- 
terprises, theso  tribes  had  their  homes  on  the  upper  wa- 
ters of  the  Hudson,  and  on  those  beautiful  lakes  still  fur- 
ther to  the  westward,  in  the  fertile  region  south  of  Lake 
Ontario.  The  eastern  Indians  regarded  this  confederacy 
with  terror,  while  the  tribes  as  far  south  as  the  Chesa- 
peake lived  in  constant  dread  of  their  war  parties.  Al- 
ready these  fierce  warriors,  destined  to  play  a  conspicuous 
part  in  American  history,  had  conceived  a  violent  antip- 
athy against  the  French  of  Canada,  who  had  given  aid  to 
the  Hurons  and  other  tribes  of  their  enemies  who  dwelt 
on  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  Dutch  assiduously  cultiva- 
ted their  friendship,  and  presently  furnished  them  with 
fire-arms,  by  which  they  became  still  more  formidable. 

The  Iroquois  spoke  a  dialect  of  the  Wyandot ;  the 
Indians  about  the  island  of  Manhattan  were  of  the  Al- 
gonquin race,  branches  of  the  Leni-Lenape  confederacy, 
known  subsequently  to  the  English  as  the  Delawares. 
They  seem  also  to  have  shared  with  the  tribes  on  Long 
Island  Sound  the  general  appellation  of  Mohegans  or 
Mohekanders.  For  convenience  of  traffic  with  those 
tribes,  and  as  a  rendezvous  for  vessels  coming  from  Hoi- 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.    ^39 

land,  Corstiaensen  built  a  new  fort  or  trading  house  on  CHAPTER 
the  Island  of  Manhattan.  

Hendricksen,  who  had  been  left  on  the  coast  in  com-  1615. 
mand  of  the  Restless,  carefully  explored  the  South  Bay 
and  River  as  far  up  as  the  mouth  of  the  Schuylkill — ex- 
plorations which  Mey  himself  afterward  continued  and 
completed.     The  three  years'  monopoly  of  the  company 
was  not  extended,  but  they  still  kept  up  their  trading 
houses  and  continued  their  trade.     The  English  refugees 
at  Leyden,  of  whose  settlement  at  New  Plymouth  the 
next  chapter  will  contain  an  account,  doubtful  of  relig- 
ious toleration  if  they  settled  under  the  Virginia  patent, 
proposed  to  these  merchants  to  establish  a  colony  at  the  1619. 
mouth  of  the  Hudson ;  but  the  disinclination  of  the  Dutch 
authorities  prevented  this  project  from  going  into  effect; 
and  the  English  refugees,  since  they  could  do  no  better, 
renewed  their  negotiation  with  the  Virginia  Company. 

Argall's  protest  against  the  establishment  of  the  Dutch 
at  Manhattan  was  soon  repeated  from  another  quarter. 
Captain  Dormer,  in  the  service  of  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges, 
coasting  in  a  small  vessel  from  the  Kennebec  to  Virginia, 
was  probably  the  first  Englishman  who  passed  through 
Long  Island  Sound.  On  his  return  the  same  way  he 
touched  at  Manhattan,  and  claimed  all  that  region  as  1620. 
within  the  patent  of  the  English  company  for  North  Vir- 
ginia, to  which  the  Dutch  /traders  replied  that  they  were 
the  first  occupiers.  Argall,  Gorges,  and  others  joined  1621. 
in  a  complaint  to  James  I.  against  the  intrusions  of  the 
Dutch,  and  the  English  embassador  at  the  Hague  was 
ordered  to  examine  into  the  matter,  and  to  remonstrate 
with  the  States-General.  They  referred  the  subject  to  1622. 
the  deputies  of  Holland,  who  alleged  ignorance,  and 
promised  to  inquire  ;  but  no  answer  to  the  remonstrance 
seems  ever  to  have  been  made. 


140  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

;HAPTER       The  trade  and  claim  of  the  Dutch  to  New  Nether- 
v. 

land,  whatever  that  claim  might  be,  had  already  passed 

1621.  into  the  hands  of  one  of  the  great  trading  companies  so 
fashionable  in  that  age.  The  expiration  of  the  truce 
with  Spain,  and  the  consequent  danger  to  which  Dutch 
American  commerce  was  exposed,  had  led  to  the  incorpo- 
ration of  the  Dutch  West  India  Company,  with  exclusive 
privileges  of  trade  and  settlement  on  both  coasts  of  Amer- 
ica, embracing,  also,  the  west  coast  of  Africa,  from  the 
tropic  of  Cancer  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope — a  monopoly 
not  less  comprehensive  than  that  of  the  East  India  Com- 
pany. Exclusively  of  the  coasts  of  Europe  and  northern 
Africa,  the  rest  of  the  world,  so  far  as  Dutch  commerce 
was  concerned,  was  shared  between  these  two  great 
companies.  This  wealthy  association,  able  to  combine 
military  with  commercial  operations,  was  divided  into 
five  chambers  or  branches,  established  in  five  principal 
Dutch  cities,  its  affairs  being  managed  by  a  board  of  di- 
rectors, called  the  Assembly  of  Nineteen,  one  of  whom 
was  appointed  by  the  States-General,  and  the  others  by 
the  five  chambers,  in  the  ratio  of  their  respective  wealth 
and  importance. 

Reprisals  on  Spanish  commerce,  the  conquest  of  Bra- 
zil, the  purchase  of  slaves  on  the  African  coast,  and  the 
establishment  of  settlements  in  the  West  Indies,  chiefly 
engrossed  the  attention  of  this  great  commercial  compa- 
ny. But  New  Netherland  was  not  wholly  overlooked ; 
it  was  made  a  province,  and  committed  to  the  especial 
charge  of  the  Amsterdam  chamber ;  and  a  vessel  with 
1623.  emigrants  was  dispatched  thither,  under  the  command 
of  Mey,  whose  experience,  acquired  in  former  voyages, 
was  now  availed  of  by  the  new  proprietors. 

Mey  ascended  South  Bay,  and  built  a  fort  on  Dela- 
ware River,  called  Nassau,  the  first  European  establish- 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND. 

ment  in  that  region.  Up  the  Hudson,  a  few  miles  north  CHAPTER 
of  the  former  post,  Fort  Orange  was  built,  on  the  pres- 
ent  site  of  Albany.  Among  the  emigrants  carried  out  1624. 
by  Mey,  about  thirty  families  in  all,  was  a  small  colony 
of  Walloons,  Protestant  refugees  from  the  Spanish  Neth- 
erlands, who  had  previously  sought,  without  success,  per- 
mission from  the  English  Virginia  Company  to  settle  in 
their  territory,  under  magistrates  of  their  own.  The 
Dutch  had  hitherto  visited  New  Netherland  only  as  trad- 
ers ;  the  first  colonists,  properly  so  called,  were  these 
Walloons,  who  settled  on  the  northwest  corner  of  Long 
Island,  at  Wahle-Bocht,  or  "  Walloons'  Bay,"  now  cor- 
rupted into  Wallabowt. 

The  supreme  local  authority  of  New  Netherland,  ex- 
ecutive, legislative,  and  judicial,  was  vested  in  the  di- 
rector and  his  council.  Next  in  rank  was  the  Schout- 
Fiscal,  who  combined,  according  to  the  Dutch  usage, 
the  duties  of  attorney  general  and  sheriff.  He  sat  in 
the  council  on  certain  occasions,  and  gave  his  opinion  on 
questions  of  justice,  finance,  and  police,  but  had  no  vote. 

Mey  was  succeeded  by  Verhulst,  who  arrived  with  1625 
three  ships,  bringing  out  horses,  cattle,  sheep,  and  swine, 
with  a  number  of  new  settlers.  Next  year,  Peter  Min%  1626 
uet  was  appointed  director.  The  Island  of  Manhattan, 
«  rocky  and  full  of  trees,"  was  purchased  of  the  Indians 
for  sixty  gilders,  about  twenty-four  dollars  ;  and  a  block- 
house, surrounded  by  a  palisade  of  cedars,  was  erected 
at  its  southern  extremity,  and  called  Fort  Amsterdam. 
About  this  fort,  the  head-quarters  of  the  colony,  a  little 
village  slowly  grew  up — rudiment  of  the  present  metrop- 
olis of  NEW  YORK.  Six  farms  were  laid  out  on  Man- 
hattan Island ;  and  specimens  of  the  harvest  were  sent 
to  Holland  in  proof  of  the  fertility  of  the  soil. 

A  friendly  correspondence  and  intercourse  of  trade  was  1627 


142  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  presently  opened  with  the  English  at  New  Plymouth,  the 
'  same  who  had  proposed  to  settle  on  the  Hudson,  and  who 
1627.  still  recollected  with  gratitude  the  kind  entertainment 
they  had  enjoyed  for  so  many  years  in  Holland.  The 
Dutch,  however,  were  not  very  well  pleased  at  being  re- 
peatedly reminded  by  Governor  Bradford  of  the  English 
claim  to  the  country  they  occupied,  and  still  less  did 
they  relish  his  request  to  forbear  trading  with  the  In- 
dians of  Cape  Cod  and  Narraganset  Bay.  The  intima- 
tion that  they  were  liable  to  be  attacked  by  English  ves- 
sels was  construed  into  a  threat,  and  the  Dutch  traders 
wrote  home  for  soldiers.  But  danger  on  that  score  had 
been  already  obviated  by  an  arrangement  entered  into 
with  the  King  of  England,  securing  to  the  ships  of  the 
Dutch  West  India  Company  the  right  to  frequent  all 
English  ports,  wheresoever  situated. 

Colonization  could  hardly  be  said  to  have  yet  been 
attempted  by  the  Dutch  ;  but  a  scheme  for  that  purpose, 
drawn  up  by  the  Assembly  of  Nineteen,  was  at  length 
1629.  approved  and  ratified  by  the  States-General.  Any  mem- 
June,  j-jgj.  of  faQ  company  who  might  establish  in  any  part  of 
New  Netherland,  within  four  years  after  notice  of  his  in- 
tention, a  colony  of  fifty  persons  upward  of  fifteen  years 
of  age,  was  to  be  entitled,  by  the  name  of  Patroon,  to 
a  grant  of  territory  so  occupied,  sixteen  miles  in  extent 
along  the  sea-shore,  or  the  bank  of  some  navigable  river, 
or  eight  miles  where  both  banks  were  occupied,  with  an 
indefinite  extent  inland.  The  Island  of  Manhattan  and 
the  fur  trade  with  the  Indians  were  expressly  reserved  to 
the  company  ;  and  upon  all  trade  carried  on  by  the  pa- 
troons,  an  acknowledgment  of  five  per  cent,  was  to  be 
paid.  These  patroons  were  to  extinguish  the  Indian  title, 
and  were  to  settle  their  lands  with  tenants,  farmers  hav- 
ing indented  servants  the  same  with  those  of  Virginia ; 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.     ^43 

but  the  feudal  privileges  reserved  to  the  patroons,  some  CHAPTER 
traces  of  which  still  exist,  present  a  marked  difference  be-         ' 
tween  this  Dutch  scheme  of  settlement  and  the  free  ten-  1629. 
ure  of  lands  adopted  in  Virginia.     Free  settlers,  who  emi- 
grated at  their  own  expense,  were  to  be  allowed  as  much 
land  as  they  could  cultivate ;   and  settlers  of  every  de- 
scription were  to  be  free  of  taxes  for  ten  years.     The 
colonists  were  forbidden  to  make  any  woolen,  linen,  or 
cotton  cloth,  or  to  weave  any  other   stuffs,  on  pain  of 
being  banished,  and  arbitrarily  punished  "as  perjurers" 
— a  regulation  in  the  spirit  of  that  colonial  system  adopt- 
ed by  all  the  nations  of  Europe,  which  sought  to  confine 
the  colonists  'to  the  production  of  articles  of  export,  and 
to  keep  them  dependent  on  the  mother  country  for  the 
most  necessary  manufactures. 

In  anticipation  of  this  scheme,  some  leading  members 
of  the  company  had  already  taken  measures  to  secure  to 
themselves  the  most  accessible  and  inviting  territories. 
Godyn  and  Bloemmaert  had  employed  agents  to  purchase 
from  the  Indians  a  tract  extending  from  Cape  Henlopen  June  l. 
thirty-two  miles  up  the  west  shore  of  South  or  Delaware 
Bay.     Not  long  after  the  same  proprietors  made  a  pur-  1631. 
chase,  sixteen  miles  square,  on  the  opposite  shore,  includ-      ay   ' 
ing  Cape  May.      To  these  purchases  they  gave  the  name 
of  Zwanendal,  or  Swansdale.      Pauw,  one  of  the  direct- 
ors of  the  West  India  Company,  bought  up  the  Indian  ^QQQ 
title  to  the  district  named  Hoboken,  to  which  Staten  July  12. 
Island  and  other  neighboring  tracts  were  presently  added.  Aug.  10 
This   region  was   called  Pavonia.      Van   Rensselaer's 
agents  had  already  purchased  the  lands  above  and  below  April  18 
Fort  Orange.     This  purchase,  called  Rensselaerswyck,  in- 
cluding additions  afterward  obtained,  was  twenty-four  July  2S 
miles  long  and  forty-eight  broad,  embracing  the  present 
counties  of  Albany  and  Rensselaer,  with  a  part  of  Co- 


144  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  lumbia.      For  the  settlement  of  Zwanendal  and  Rens- 

v. 
selaerswyck  companies  were  formed  by  the  patroons,  into 

1630.  which  other  parties  were  admitted. 
Dec.         ^  little  colony  of  thirty  persons,  sent  to  Zwanendal, 
was  established  at  Hoar  kill,  just  within  Cape  Henlo- 
pen,  the  present  site  of  Lewistown.     A  small  colony  was 

March,   also  sent  to  Rensselaerswyck,  and  some  settlers  to  Pa- 
%     vonia. 

The  patroons,  however,  did  little  more  than  was  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  secure  their  grants.  They  were  chiefly 
anxious  for  the  fur  trade  with  the  Indians,  in  which,  not- 
withstanding an  express  provision  to  the  contrary,  they 
claimed  a  right  to  participate,  at  least  in  those  districts 
where  the  company  had  no  trading  posts.  This  claim 
occasioned  a  warm  dispute ;  and  Minuet,  the  director, 
accused  of  favoring  the  pretensions  of  the  patroons,  was 

1632.  recalled.  The  ship  in  which  he  returned  with  a  cargo 
of  furs,  after  entering  the  English  Channel,  was  forced 

March,  by  stress  of  weather  to  put  into  the  harbor  of  Plymouth, 
and  was  seized  there,  by  procurement  of  Gorges  and 
others,  as  an  interloping  trader.  This  seizure  led  to  a 
new  correspondence  between  the  Dutch  and  English 
governments  as  to*  the  Dutch  title  to  New  Netherland. 
At  length  the  ship  was  released,  but  the  English  still 
insisted  on  their  claim  to  the  territory. 

Sailing  for  the  Delaware  on  a  whaling  expedition,  and 
with  supplies,  also,  for  Zwanendal,  De  Vries,  as  he  ap- 
proached, caused  a  signal  gun  to  be  fired  ;  but  there  was 

Dec.  6.  no  answer.  What  a  scene  met  his  eyes  when  he  landed ! 
The  palisades  were  burned,  the  block-house  destroyed, 
and  human  bones  lay  scattered  around.  Some  quarrel 
had  arisen  with  the  neighboring  Indians,  who  had  sur- 
prised and  destroyed  the  colony.  De  Vries  proceeded  up 
the  bay  in  search  of  provisions ;  but  Fort  Nassau  had 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.    145 

been  abandoned.     He  opened  an  intercourse  with  the  In-  CHAPTER 
dians,  and  made  peace,  saying  nothing  of  the  past.     His         ' 
visit  to  Virginia  has  been  mentioned  already.      Subse-  1633. 
quently  he  established  himself  on  Staten  Island.      The 
settlement  at  Rensselaerswyck  was  more  permanent,  but 
its  increase  was  very  slow.      The  exports  from  Fort  Am- 
sterdam amounted,  for  this  year,  to  about  $57,000. 

Walter  Van  Twiller,  appointed  director  in  Minuet's 
place,  brought  out  from  Holland  an  hundred  and  four  sol- 
diers, a  schoolmaster,  and  Bogardus,  a  clergyman.  Lit- 
tle, however,  was  done  toward  introducing  permanent  set- 
tlers. Indian  trade  was  still  the  great  object,  and  almost 
the  sole  thing  attended  to.  In  this  trade  a  dangerous 
rivalry  was  now  threatened. 

Shortly  after  Van  Twiller's  arrival,  a  London  ship  ap-  April. 
peared  at  Manhattan  with  Jacob  Elkins  for  supercargo, 
the  same  person  who  had  established  the  first  trading 
post  up  the  Hudson.  He  persisted  in  ascending  the  riv- 
er, and  opening  a  trade  with  the  Indians  ;  but  the  Dutch 
at  length  mustered  courage  and  drove  him  away.  This 
proceeding  occasioned  a  fresh  remonstrance  from  the  En- 
glish court. 

The  Dutch  had  long  carried  on  a  profitable  trade  with 
the  numerous  Indians  on  Fresh  or  Connecticut  River. 
A  small  tract  of  land  at  the  mouth  of  that  river  had 
lately  been  purchased  of  the  Indians,  and  the  arms  of  the 
States- General  affixed  to  a  tree.  For  the  better  secur- 
ity of  this  valuable  traffic,  and  with  a  view  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  permanent  trading  house  in  that  region, 
another  tract  on  the  west  bank  of  the  river,  about  sixty 
miles  from  its  mouth,  near  the  site  of  the  present  city 
of  Hartford,  was  purchased  of  the  Pequods,  and  a  trad-  1633. 
ing  post,  called  the  House  of  Good  Hope,  was  built  upon  June  8' 
it,  and  fortified  with  two  pieces  of  cannon.  Just  about 
I.  K 


146  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  this  time  there  arrived  at  New  Amsterdam  a  small  bark 

v. 
from  the  new  English  colony  lately  planted  on  Massa- 

1633.  chusetts  Bay,  the  commencement  of  trade  between  Bos- 
ton and  New  York.  She  brought  letters  from  Winthrop, 
the  governor  of  the  new  colony,  informing  Van  T wilier 
that  the  King  of  England  had  granted  all  the  country  on 
the  Lower  Connecticut  to  certain  lords  and  gentlemen, 
his  subjects,  and  expressing  surprise  that  he  should  have 

Get.  4.  taken  possession  there.  Van  Twiller,  in  reply,  proposed 
to  refer  the  matter  to  their  respective  governments,  hop- 
ing there  might  be  no  occasion  for  the  king's  majesty  of 
England  and  the  lords  the  States-General  to  fall  into 
contention  "  about  a  little  part  or  portion  of  these  hea- 
thenish countries."  Meanwhile,  however,  the  people  of 
Plymouth  had  taken  decisive  steps  in  the  matter.  They 
had  learned  the  Connecticut  trade  from  the  Dutch,  and 
being  determined  to  maintain  their  share  of  it,  if  not, 
indeed,  to  engross  the  whole,  had  applied  to  Massachu- 
setts to  unite  with  them  in  establishing  a  post  on  the 
river,  to  which  they  had  been  invited  by  a  petty  chief  of 
that  region,  lately  driven  out  by  the  Pequods.  Massa- 
chusetts having  declined  to  co-operate  on  account  of  the 
numerous  Indians  in  that  neighborhood  and  the  difficulty 
of  entering  the  river,  the  Plymouth  people  undertook  the 
enterprise  on  their  own  account.  With  the  frame  of  a 
trading  house  ready  prepared,  and  accompanied  by  sever- 
al sachems  of  that  neighborhood,  William  Holmes,  "lieu- 
tenant and  trader,"  proceeded  coastwise,  in  a  small  ves- 
sel from  Plymouth,  and  entered  the  Connecticut.  As 

Sept.  16.  he  approached  the  Dutch  post  he  was  hailed  and  ordered 
off,  but  persisted  in  his  purpose,  and,  having  ascended  a 
mile  and  a  half  higher,  landed  his  provisions  and  goods, 
set  up  his  house,  and  sent  home  the  bark.  The  Dutch 

Oct.  25.  served  a  written  protest  on  these  intruders,  and  Van 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND. 

Twiller  presently  sent  seventy  soldiers  to  dislodge  them.  CHAPTER 

But  they  stood  on  their  defense,  and  the  Dutch  com- 

mander  did  not  judge  it  expedient  to  use  force.  1638. 

Simultaneously  with  this  struggle  for  the  possession 
of  the  Connecticut,  a  new  commissary  was  sent  to  oc- 
cupy the  Delaware,  with  authority,  which  he  soon  'exer- 
cised, to  purchase  of  the  Indians  a  tract  about  the  mouth 
of  the  Schuylkill,  upon  which  a  fort,  called  Beversreede, 
was  presently  erected,  the  seat  of  a  profitable  fur  trade. 

At  New  Amsterdam  itself  Van  Twiller  undertook  va-  1634. 
rious  improvements.  The  fort  was  rebuilt,  with  bar- 
racks for  the  soldiers ;  a  church  and  parsonage,  a  house 
for  the  director,  mills,  and  other  necessary  buildings,  were 
erected.  On  farm  or  "  bowery"  number  one,  the  prop- 
erty of  the  West  India  Company — that  part  of  the  pres- 
ent city  of  New  York  adjoining  Wall  Street  northward 
— the  director  caused  to  be  built  a  dwelling,  barn,  brew- 
ery, and  boat-house,  and  buildings,  also,  on  other  bow- 
eries belonging  to  the  company. 

But  continued  disputes  with  the  patroons  proved  a 
serious  obstacle  to  the  advance  of  the  province.  The 
patroons  claimed  not  only  freedom  of  traffic  along  the 
unoccupied  shores  and  rivers,  but  even  exclusive  trade 
within  their  patroonships ;  and  they  paid  very  little  at- 
tention to  agriculture,  to  which  the  directors  of  the  West 
India  Company  wished  to  confine  them.  To  get  rid  of 
these  controversies,  it  was  proposed  to  buy  up  the  pa- 
troonships, and  Zwanendal  was  presently  sold  back  to  the  Nor,  27. 
West  India  Company  for  15,600  gilders,  or  $6240. 

While  these  quarrels  retarded  the  progress  of  the  set-  1635. 
tlements,  emigrants  from  Massachusetts,  as  will  be  more 
fully  related  in  a  subsequent  chapter,  established  them- 
selves on  the  Connecticut,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
Dutch  fort.  The  mouth  of  the  river  was  also  occupied, 
and  a  fort  built  there,  on  behalf  of  the  English  lords 


J48  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAKTEH  proprietors — proceedings  by  which  the  Dutch  were  threat- 
ened with  total  exclusion  from  the  Fresh  River.     Nor 

1635.  were- they  secure  in  the  rest  of  their  territory.     A  party 
from  Virginia  ventured  to  occupy  the  empty  Fort  Nas- 
sau, on  the  Delaware ;  but,  on  information  of  this  ag- 
gression, an  armed  bark  was  sent  against  them,  and  they 
were  taken  prisoners,  and  carried  to  Fort  Amsterdam, 
whence  they  were  shipped  back  again  to  Virginia. 

1634.  A  patent,  under  the  great  seal  of  Ireland,  issued  by 
June  21.  ^e  famous  Strafford,  then  lord  lieutenant,  had  granted  to 
Edward  Plowden  a  province  by  the  name  of  NEW  ALBION, 
including  the  peninsula  now  the  State  of  New  Jersey, 
with  all  the  adjacent  islands.  This  charter  recites  that 
a  colony  of  five  hundred  persons  had  already  been  plant- 
ed. If  so,  the  enterprise  must  soon  have  been  abandoned, 
as  no  other  trace  of  its  existence  appears.  Some  slight 
efforts  were  subsequently  made  to  occupy  this  grant,  but 
nothing  finally  came  of  it.  It  serves,  however,  as  one 
among  many  proofs  that  the  Dutch  title  to  New  Nether- 
land  was  not  recognized  by  the  English. 

1636.  Van  T wilier,  though  accused  of  extravagance  and  neg- 
ligence in  managing  the  affairs  of  the  company,  did  not 
neglect  his  own  interests.     He  procured,  with  several 
other  officials,  without  asking  leave  of  the  directors  in 
Holland,  a  grant  from  the  Indians  of  a  fertile  tract  on 
Long  Island,  on  which  the  grantees  established  farms 
and  plantations  of  their  own.      Such  was  the  beginning 

.  of  the  village  of  Flatlands,  originally  called  New  Amers- 
foordt.  Van  Twiller  also  procured  for  himself  a  grant 
•from  the  Indians  of  Governor's  Island,  south  of  New 
Amsterdam,  and  of  two  other  islands  in  the  Hellgate. 
But,  in  consequence  of  complaints  and  representations  of 
the  fiscal,  whom  the;  director  had  condemned  to  lose  his 

1637.  pay,  and  had  sent  to  Holland  to  give  an  account  of  his 
conduct,  Van  Twiller  himself  was  presently  recalled. 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND. 

William  Kieft,  appointed  to  succeed  him,  found  the 
company's  property  in  a  neglected  and  ruinous  condition,  ' 
their  buildings  in  decay,  their  five  boweries  or  farms  on  1638. 
Manhattan  Island  untenanted  and  stripped  of  their  stock,  M^rch- 
and  the  purchase  of  furs  almost  engrossed  by  private  trad- 
ers, whose  conduct,  in  many  respects,  was  loose  and  li- 
centious. Kieft,  who  is  described  by  Winthrop  as  "a 
sober  and  discreet  man,"  did  what  he  could,  by  the  issue 
of  orders  and  proclamations,  to  remedy  these  evils.  Some 
additional  settlers  arrived,  and  further  purchases  were 
made  of  lands  on  Long  Island.  An  ordinance  was  also 
issued  to  regulate  the  cultivation  of  tobacco,  which  prom- 
ised to  become  a  valuable  resource.  Contrasted,  how- 
ever, with  the  rapid  progress  of  the  rival  settlements  in 
New  England,  the  condition  of  New  Netherland  was  by 
no  means  encouraging. 

The  colony  of  Rensselaerswyck  equaled,  perhaps,  in 
population,  the  rest  of  the  province.  The  government 
was  vested  in  two  commissaries,  one  of  whom  acted  as 
president,  and  two  counselors,  assisted  by  a  secreta- 
ry, Schout-Fiscal,  and  marshal.  The  commissaries  and 
counselors  composed  a  court  for  the  trial  of  all  cases 
civil  and  criminal,  from  which,  however,  an  appeal  lay 
to  the  director  and  council  at  Fort  Amsterdam.  The 
code  of  Rensselaerswyck,  as  of  the  rest  of  the  province, 
was  the  Roman-Dutch  law  as  administered  in  Holland. 
Fort  Orange  was  not  included  in  the  patroonship,  but  re- 
mained under  the  exclusive  control  of  the  West  India 
Company  and  their  director  at  Fort  Amsterdam.  The  '&fej 
population  consisted  of  farmers  who  had  emigrated  at 
their  own  expense ;  other  farmers,  sent  out  by  the  pa- 
troon,  to  establish  and  cultivate  boweries  on  shares  or 
rent ;  and  farm  servants  indented  for  a  term  of  years. 
Squabbles  between  the  patroon  and  his  tenants  com- 
menced with  the  very  foundation  of  the  colony. 


ISO 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


.#;<urn  5  ^ 

CHAPTER   VI. 

NEW  ENGLAND.     COLONY  OF  NEW  PLYMOUTH.    LACONIA. 

ea^TER   J_  HE  first  charter  of  Virginia,  it  will  be  recollected, 
contemplated  the  plantation  of  two  colonies.      The  per- 

1606.  sons  mentioned  in  it,  as  members  of  the  Company  for 
planting  the  second,  or  northern  colony,  were  Thomas 
Hanham,  Raleigh  Gilbert,  younger  son  of  Sir  Humphrey 
Gilbert,  William  Parker,  and  George  Popham.     Sir  John 
Gilbert,  elder  brother  of  Raleigh  Gilbert,  Sir  John  Pop- 
ham,  brother  of  George  Popham,  and  lord  chief  justice 
of  England,  and  Sir   Ferdinando   Gorges,  governor  of 
Plymouth,  though  not  mentioned  in  the  charter,  were 
active  and  zealous  members  of  the  company. 

A  small  vessel,  with  two  captive  Indians  on  board  as 
guides  and  pilots,  sent  to  explore  the  coasts  of  North  Vir- 
ginia, was  unfortunately  driven  by  a  storm  to  the  West 
Indies,  where  she  was  seized  by  the  Spaniards.  But 
another  ship,  fitted  out  at  the  sole  expense  of  Sir  John 
Popham,  and  under  command  of  Martin  Pring,  whom  we 
have  seen  already  a  successful  navigator  on  those  coasts, 
brought  back  such  favorable  reports  that  it  was  resolved 
at  once  to  commence  a  settlement. 

1607.  Two  ships  were  got  ready,  with  forty-five  colonists,  ac- 
companied by  two  of  the  Indians  whom  Wey mouth  had 
carried  to  England.     With  George  Popham  as  president 
of  the  council,  and  Raleigh  Gilbert  as  admiral,  these  col- 

Angust.  onists  established  themselves  on  a  small  island  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Sagadahoc,  or  Kennebec,  where  they  built 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       ^  5  ^ 

a  fort  called  St.  George.     The  winter  proved  unexpect-  CHAPTER 
edly  long  and  severe,  and,  in  the  depth  of  it,  their  store- 
house  was  unfortunately  burned.     The  president  died ;  1608. 
and  a  ship,  which  arrived  in  the  spring  with  supplies, 
brought  news  of  the  death  of  Sir  John  Popham  and  Sir 
John  Gilbert,  the  two  chief  patrons  of  the  enterprise.     It 
was  necessary  for  Raleigh  Gilbert  to  go  home  to  look 
after  the  inheritance  which  his  brother  had  left   him. 
The  discouraged  colonists  embarked  also,  and  all  return- 
ed to  England. 

No  better  success  attended  a  company  of  adventurers  1610. 
for  Newfoundland,  got  up  by  John  Guy,  a  Bristol  mer- 
chant, in  which  the  celebrated  Lord  Bacon,  and  other  per- 
sons of  consequence,  were  interested  as  partners.  A  pat- 
ent was  obtained,  and  a  colony  was  sent  to  Conception 
Bay ;  but  the  enterprise  was  soon  abandoned. 

Nothing  further  was  attempted  for  several  years,  ex- 
cept a  few  fishing  voyages  to  the  coast  of  North  Virgin- 
ia, undertaken,  it  would  seem,  by  the  private  enterprise 
of  individual  members  of  the  company,  among  whom  Sir 
Ferdinando  Gorges  was  most  zealous.  Monhiggon,  a 
small  island  some  distance  off  the  coast,  between  the 
Penobscot  and  the  Kennebec,  became  the  chief  rendez- 
vous of  the  fishermen. 

Captain  Smith,  so  conspicuous  during  the  first  years  1614. 
of  the  colony  at  Jamestown,  not  finding  his  services  ap- 
preciated by  the  London  Company,  embarked  on  one  of 
these  voyages.  While  the  ships  lay  at  Monhiggon,  em- 
ployed in  fishing,  in  a  boat  with  eight  men  he  explored 
the  coast  from  Penobscot  Bay  to  the  extremity  of  Cape 
Cod.  He  gave  to  this  coast  the  name  of  NEW  ENGLAND, 
a  name  confirmed  by  the  Prince  of  Wales,  afterward 
Charles  I.,  to  whom  Smith  presented  a  map  he  had 
drawn,  soon  afterward  published,  with  a  description  of 


152  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  country.     Hunt,  master  of  one  of  these  ships,  kid- 
napped twenty-seven  of  the  natives  from  the  coast  of 

1614.  Cape  Cod,  and  carried  them  to  Malaga  with  his  cargo 
of  fish,  where  he  attempted  to  sell  them  as  slaves ;  but 
some  benevolent  friars,  learning  the  facts,  took  from  him 
such  as  were  left,  to  be  instructed  as  missionaries.  This 
exploration  by  Smith  was  cotemporaneous  with  that  of 
the  five  Dutch  vessels  under  Corstiaensen,  Block,  and 
Mey ;  the  names  New  England  and  New  Netherland 
both  date  from  the  same  year. 

1616.  In  the  employ  of  several  members  of  the  Plymouth 
Company,  Smith  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  at  plant- 
ing a  little  colony  in  New  England.  He  was  once  driv- 
en back  by  a  storm,  and  afterward  left  by  his  crew  in 
the  hands  of  pirates,  from  whom  he  escaped  in  an  open 
boat.  Not  discouraged  by  these  mishaps,  he  spent  sev- 

1618.  eral  months  in  visiting  the  gentry  and  merchants  of  the 
west  of  England,  to  stir  them  to  new  enterprises. 

The  Virginia  Company,  by  their  second  charter,  had 
already  obtained  a  distinct  and  separate  grant  of  terri- 
tory, and  the  Plymouth  Company  now  applied  for  a  sim- 
ilar grant.  They  were  warmly  opposed  by  the  Virginia 
Company  and  the  private  traders,  who  insisted  on  the 
policy  of  leaving  the  New  England  fishery  free ;  but, 
after  a  two  years'  solicitation,  they  succeeded  in  obtain- 

1620.  ing  a  charter  from  the  king,  known  among  New  En- 

Nov.  3.  gland  historians  as  the  "  Great  Patent."  By  this  char- 
ter, the  whole  of  North  America,  from  the  fortieth  to  the 
forty-eighth  degree  of  north  latitude,  excepting,  however, 
all  places  "  actually  possessed  by  any  other  Christian 
prince  or  people,"  was  granted  in  full  property,  with  ex- 
clusive rights  of  jurisdiction,  settlement,  and  traffic,  to 
forty  noble,  wealthy,  and  influential  persons,  incorporated 
as  "  The  Council  established  at  Plymouth,  in  the  County 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

of  Devon,  for  the  Planting,  Ruling,  Ordering,  and  Gov-  CHAPTER 
erning  of  New  England,  in  America."     Th#  whole  of         ' 
North  America,  as  claimed  by  the  English,  was  thus  di-  1620. 
vided  into  the  two  provinces  of  New  England  and  Vir- 
ginia, by  a  line  of  demarkation  very  nearly  coincident 
with  that  which  still  separates  the  slave-holding  from  the 
non-slave-holding  states.     Not,  however,  by  the  wealthy 
and  powerful  Council  for  New  England,  but  by  a  feeble 
band  of  obscure  religionists  was  the  first  permanent  set- 
tlement made  within  the  limits  of  this  new  province. 

At  the  dictation  of  Henry  VIII.,  who  took  that  way  1534. 
of  vindicating  his  divorce  from  Queen  Catharine  and  his 
marriage  with  Anne  Boleyn,  the  English  clergy  had 
thrown  off  the  supremacy  of  the  pope.  By  degrees,  so 
far  as  their  tyrant  allowed,  they  embraced  the  leading 
doctrines  of  the  Reformation — doctrines  which  made  a 
still  greater  progress  among  the  more  intelligent  portion 
of  the  people.  But  the  English,  beyond  any  other  Prot- 
estant Church,  retained  an  hierarchical  constitution,  a 
multitude  of  Romish  ceremonies,  and  a  profound  re- 
spect for  ecclesiastical  tradition.  When  the  Liturgy  and 
Church  ceremonies  were  settled,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  1549. 
VI.,  several  bishops  and  others  protested  against  them 
as  altogether  too  popish.  Among  those  who  fled  abroad 
during  the  persecution  of  Mary,  a  controversy  broke  out 
on  the  subject  of  ceremonials,  which  the  returning  ex- 
iles brought  back  with  them  to  England. 

As  the  other  traditions  of  the  Church  fell  more  and 
more  into  contempt,  the  entire  reverence  of  the  people 
was  concentrated  upon  the  Bible,  recently  made  access- 
ible in  an  English  version,  and  read  with  eagerness,  not 
as  a  mere  form  of  words,  to  be  solemnly  and  ceremoni- 
ously gone  through  with,  but  as  an  inspired  revelation, 
an  indisputable  authority  in  science,  politics,  morals, 


154         '    HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  life.      It  began,  indeed,  to  be  judged  necessary,  by  the 

more  ardent  and  sincere,  that  all  existing  institutions  in 

1558  church  and  state,  all  social  relations,  and  the  habits  of 
every-day  life,  should  be  reconstructed,  and  made  to 
conform  to  this  divine  model.  Those  who  entertained 
these  sentiments  increased  to  a  considerable  party,  com- 
posed chiefly,  indeed,  of  the  humbler  classes,  yeomen, 
traders,  and  mechanics,  but  including,  also,  clergymen, 
merchants,  landed  proprietors,  and  even  some  of  the  no- 
bility. They  were  derided  by  those  not  inclined  to  go 
with  them  as  Puritans  ;  but  the  austerity  of  their  lives 
and  doctrines,  and  their  confident  claim  to  internal  assu- 
rance- of  a  second  birth  and  special  election  as  the  chil- 
dren of  God,  made  a  powerful  impression  on  the  mul- 
titude, while  the  high  schemes  they  entertained  for  the 
reconstruction  of  society  brought  them  into  sympathy 
with  all  that  was  great  and  heroic  in  the  nation. 

The  Puritans  denounced  the  Church  ceremonies,  and 
presently  the  hierarchy ;  but  they  long  entertained  pro- 
found reverence  for  the  Church  itself,  and  a  superstitious 
terror  of  schism.  Some  of  the  bolder  and  more  ardent, 
whose  hot  zeal  gave  them  courage,  took  at  length  the 
1582.  decisive  step  of  renouncing  the  English  communion,  and 
setting  up  a  church  of  their  own,  upon  what  they  con- 
ceived to  be  the  Bible  model.  That,  however,  was  going 
further  than  the  great  body  of  the  Puritans  wished  or 
dared  to  follow,  and  these  separatists  remained  for  many 
years  obscure  and  inconsiderable.  They  were  known 
as  BrownistS)  from  one  of  their  leaders,  who,  however, 
by  presently  rejoining  the  English  Church,  forfeited  the 
canonization  he  might  otherwise  have  obtained,  and  even 
made  his  followers  ashamed  of  his  name. 

The  setting  up  of  a  separate  church  was,  indeed,  in 
those  days,  a  serious  matter.     The  system  of  enforcing 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       1  5  5 

feiigious  conformity  by  law  was  universally  advocated,  CHAPTER 

by  none  more  heartily  than  by  the  Puritans  themselves, 

who  signalized  their  religious  zeal  by  calling  loudly  for  1584. 
severe  penal  statutes  against  the  Catholics,  whom  they  de- 
nounced as  idolaters.     The  Court  of  High  Commission 
was  established  as  a  check  upon  Puritan  and  Catholic 
separatists.     All  persons  absent  four  Sundays  in  sue-  1593. 
cession  from  the  regular  church  service  were  liable  to 
be  interrogated  by  this  court,  and  were  exposed  to  ar- 
bitrary punishment. 

Delivered  by  the  accession  of  James  from  the  stern  1603. 
oversight  of  Elizabeth,  who  allowed  no  authority  to  com- 
pete with  her  own,  the  English  bishops,  by  a  sort  of 
natural  reaction  against  the  Puritans,  begun  to  put  forth 
new  pretensions.  Not  content  to  rest  their  authority 
upon  the  acts  of  Parliament  and  their  appointment  by 
the  crown,  they  claimed  to  be  bishops  by  divine  right, 
possessed  of  a  peculiar  sacred  authority,  conveyed  to  them, 
in  the  act  of  ordination,  by  uninterrupted  tradition  from 
the  apostles.  To  episcopal  ordination,  baptism,  and  other 
ceremonies  they  ascribed  an  efficacy  which  the  Puri- 
tans could  hardly  reconcile  with  their  favorite  dogma 
of  salvation  by  faith  alone.  The  Court  of  High  Com- 
mission already  alluded  to,  an  arbitrary  tribunal  without 
juries,  which  the  courts  of  law  attempted  in  vain  to  re- 
strict, exercised  an  authority  hardly  less  dreadful  than 
that  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition.  Most  of  the  separatist 
congregations  were  broken  up,  and  all  of  them  were 
obliged  to  hold  their  meetings  in  secret. 

Such  a  congregation  existed  in  the  north  of  England, 
composed  of  scattered  members  in  the  counties  of  Not- 
tingham, Lincoln,  and  York.  Pursued  by  the  bishops 
with  eager  severity,  and  harassed  by  repeated  fines 
and  imprisonments,  the  more  zealous  and  persevering 


156  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  members  were  induced,  as  other  separatists  had  been  be- 
fore them,  to  seek  refuge  abroad.     Even  in  this  they 

1608.  were  obstructed  by  a  law  enacted  during  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth,  which  made  such  migrations  unlawful  with- 
out license  from  the  Privy  Council.      By  degrees,  how- 
ever, and  in  small  parties,  they  escaped  to  Holland,  and 
established  themselves  at  Amsterdam,  where  there  was 
already  a  church  of  English  exiles.    Between  that  church 
and  some  of  the  new  comers  disputes  presently  arose,  to 
avoid  which  John  Robinson,  one  of  the  recent  emigrant 

1609.  preachers,  removed  with  his  followers  to  Ley  den,  where 
they  remained  for  several  years  in  the  enjoyment  of  their 
separate  church  organization. 

Bugb  they  found  it  difficult  to  obtain  a  livelihood  ;  they 
did  not  like  the  free  manners  of  the  Dutch,  which  par- 
took but  little  of  Puritan  austerity ;  their  children  left 
them,  some  as  soldiers,  others  as  sailors ;  and  their  con- 
gregation was  thus  in  danger  of  dying  out.  Coloniza- 
tion in  America,  which  had  lately  come  into  vogue, 
seemed  particularly  suited  to  their  circumstances.  They 
had  thoughts  of  going  to  Guiana,  where  the  Dutch  al- 
ready had  some  trading  posts  on  the  Essequebo.  To 
that  region  of  fabulous  wealth  public  attention  had  just 
1617.  been  attracted  by  the  last  unlucky  voyage  of  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh,  which  he  had  been  released  from  the  Tower  to 
undertake,  and  which  resulted  in  his  execution  under 
the  old  sentence,  kept  so  long  hanging  over  his  head. 

They  preferred,  however,  on  sedbnd  thought,  to  remove 
to  Virginia,  provided  they  might  establish  a  separate  set- 
tlement, and  be  allowed  to  arrange  religious  matters  ac- 
cording to  their  own  ideas.  Robert  Cushman  and  John 
Carver,  two  of  their  principal  men,  went  to*  England  as 
agents.  A  grant  of  land  was  readily  promised  by  the 
company ;  and  there  was  even  a  prospect  of  obtaining 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       157 

from  the  king,  not,  indeed,  the  desired  guarantee  on  the  CHAPTER 
subject  of  religion,  but  a  promise  that  they  should  not 
be  molested.  A  bare  promise  of  this  sort  was  not  quite  1617. 
satisfactory,  and  an  attempt  was  made  to  procure  the 
countenance  of  the  Dutch  government  for  a  settlement 
at  or  near  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson,  which  some  Dutch 
merchants  trading  thither  were  ready  to  assist  in  plant- 
ing. That  scheme  having  failed,  as  already  mentioned,  1620. 
Cushman  again  proceeded  to  England,  in  company  with 
William  Brewster,  the  ruling  elder  of  the  congregation. 
The  patent  promised  by  the  Virginia  Company  was  read- 
ily granted,  and  some  merchants  of  London,  among  the 
most  active  of  whom  was  Thomas  Weston,  out  of  sym- 
pathy with  the  religious  views  of  the  proposed  emigrants, 
agreed  to  advance  the  necessary  means  ;  upon  a  bargain, 
however,  not  very  favorable  to  the  colonists.  For  every 
ten  pounds  paid  in  (less  than  fifty  dollars),  an  interest 
was  to  be  acquired  in  the  joint  stock  equivalent  to  that 
of  an  able-bodied  emigrant  who  contributed  his  personal 
services  to  the  enterprise.  The  whole  property  was  to 
remain  a  joint  stock  for  seven  years,  at  the  end  of  which 
a  division  was  to  take  place. 

It  was  arranged  that  Robinson  should  remain  behind 
with  such  of  the  Leyden  congregation  as  were  not  yet 
ready  to  embark,  or  were  not  thought  fit  for  pioneers. 
After  a  fast,  a  sermon,  and  a  solemn  parting  from  Rob- 
inson and  his  flock,  the  selected  adventurers,  under  the 
guidance  of  Brewster,  the  ruling  elder,  passed  over  to 
Southampton  in  the  Speedwell,  a  small  vessel  purchased 
in  Holland  for  the  use  of  the  colony.  Here  they  were 
joined  by  Cushman  in  the  Mayflower,  a  London  ship 
hired  for  the  voyage,  and  having  on  board  their  provis- 
ions and  outfit.  The  passengers  were  distributed  between 
the  two  vessels,  which  soon  set  sail ;  but  the  leakiness  Aug.  6. 


158  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  and  bad -trim  of  the  Speedwell,  which  belied  her  name, 
'       joined  to  the  faint-heartedness  of  her  hired  crewj  not  very 

1620.  well  disposed  to  a  service  which  would  detain  them  as 
exiles  on  a  distant  and  unknown  coast,  obliged  the  little 
squadron  to  put  first  into  Dartmouth  and  then  into  Plym- 
outh. At  this  latter  port  the  leaky  vessel  was  given  up 
as  unfit  for  the  voyage.  Some  of  her  passengers  were 
accommodated  on  board  the  Mayflower ;  but  Gush  man, 
with  some  twenty  others,  unwillingly  remained  behind. 

Sept.  6.  Thus  deprived  of  her  consort,  the  Mayflower  recom- 
menced her  lonely  voyage.  Hudson  River  was  the  point 
aimed  at ;  and,  guided  by  difference  of  latitude  merely — 
for  the  difference  of  longitude  was  as  yet  very  imperfectly 
known — the  master  of  the  vessel  expected  to  find  it  at 
no  great  distance  from  Cape  Cod.  After  a  tedious  and 
boisterous  passage  of  two  months,  the  extremity  of  that 
famous  headland  was  seen.  The  ship  was  then  turned 
to  the  south,  but  soon  became  entangled  among  shoals. 
The  crowded  passengers  were  very  anxious  to  land ;  and, 

Nor.  10.  under  the  circumstances,  it  was  judged  best  to  enter  Cape 
Cod  harbor,  a  spacious  haven  at  the  extremity  of  that 
long  and  crooked  promontory.  The  tale  has  often  been 
repeated  that  the  Dutch,  alarmed  for  their  trade  on  the 
Hudson,  had  bribed  the  master  of  the  Mayflower  not  to 
land  there.  The  cotemporary  documents  find  no  fault 
either  with  the  honesty  or  the  skill  of  the  master,  who, 
it  is  probable,  was  no  Dutchman,  but  a  citizen  of  Lon- 
don, where  the  Mayflower  belonged.  The  jealousies 
which  afterward  arose  between  these  colonists  and  the 
Dutch  of  New  Netherland  might  easily  give  rise  to  this 
story,  first  told  by  Secretary  Morton  many  years  after 
the  foundation  of  the  colony. 

Finding  themselves  out  of  the  limits  of  the  Virginia 
Company,  whose  grant  they  held,  they  judged  it  fit,  bo- 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       ^59 

fore  landing,  especially  as  some  signs  of  insubordination  CHAPTER 
appeared,  to  enter  into  a  voluntary  agreement,  which         ' 
might  serve  as  foundation  for  their  social  polity.      After  1620. 
thanksgiving  for  their  safe  arrival,  and  prayers  for  future 
protection  and  guidance,  they  signed  a  paper,  mutually 
promising  to  submit  to  all  such  "  just  and  equal  laws  and 
ordinances"   as   should  from  time   to  time   be  thought 
most  convenient  for  the  common  good.      Such  was  the 
first  of  those  voluntary  combinations  for  purposes  of  gov- 
ernment, so  common  afterward  in  America,  in  which  au- 
thority was  based  on  general  consent.      John  Carver  was 
chosen  to  act  as  governor  for  one  year.      An  assistant  to 
the  governor  was  also  chosen.      The  infant  state,  thus  or- 
ganized, consisted  of  one  hundred  and  one  persons,  men, 
women,  and  children. 

Explorers  were  sent  inland,  while  a  boat's  company 
cruised  along  the  shore.  The  country  was  covered  with 
pine  forests.  A  number  of  deserted  wigwams  were 
found,  and  a  quantity  of  Indian  corn,  in  baskets,  buried 
in  the  sand.  This  corn,  which  was  taken  possession  of, 
served  the  next  spring  for  seed,  and  the  Indian  proprie- 
tors, when  they  afterward  became  known,  were  compen- 
sated for  it.  The  boat  followed  the  concave  shore,  and 
from  time  to  time  exploring  parties  landed.  Some  dis- 
tant glimpses  were  occasionally  caught  of  the  natives, 
who  once  ventured  an  attack,  but  speedily  fled.  The 
Indians  of  Cape  Cod  had  not  been  without  their  experi- 
ence of  Europeans,  both  French  and  English.  Hunt's 
kidnapping  exploits,  some  six  years  before,  were  not  yet 
forgotten.  Shortly  previous  to  the  arrival  of  the  May- 
flower, these  coasts  had  been  repeatedly  visited  by  Cap- 
tain Dormer,  who  had  arrived  at  Monhiggon  some  eight* 
een  months  before,  in  the  service  of  Sir  Ferdinando  Gor- 
ges, and,  after  sending  home  his  two  ships  laden  with  fish, 


160  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  had  sailed  for  Virginia  in  his  pinnace.     His  visit  to  Man- 

hattan,  as  he  returned  northward  in  the  spring,  has  been 

1620.  mentioned  in  the  previous  chapter.  Leaving  the  Dutch 
colony,  he  explored  the  coasts  and  islands  for  eight  leagues 
to  the  eastward  of  the  Hudson,  and,  having  arrived  at 
Cape  Cod,  had  redeemed  from  the  Indians  two  French- 
men, the  survivors  of  a  shipwrecked  crew.  He  left  be- 
hind him,  on  the  coast  of  Cape  Cod,  an  Indian  whom 
he  had  brought  from  England  as  guide  and  interpreter, 
one  of  those  kidnapped  by  Hunt,  who  had  found  his  way, 
in  some  fishing  vessel,  from  Spain  to  Newfoundland, 
where  he  had  been  taken  into  Gorges's  employ,  and  car- 
ried to  England.  Not  long  before  the  arrival  of  the 
Mayflower,  Dormer  had  been  severely  wounded  in  an  en- 
counter with  the  Indians  of  Martha's  Vineyard,  whence 
he  sailed  for  Virginia,  where  he  died. 

After  a  laborious  and  fatiguing  voyage  of  five  weeks, 
during  which  they  underwent  fatal  exposure  to  cold  and 
wet,  having  passed  the  bottom  of  the  bay  and  followed 
the  coast  for  some  distance  to  the  north,  the  boat's  crew 
of  explorers  entered  a  harbor  more  promising  than  any 
they  had  yet  seen.  Two  long  spits  of  sand,  extending 
like  piers  in  opposite  directions,  inclosed  an  extensive  and 
well-protected  basin,  of  which,  however,  the  greater  part 
was  shallow.  On  Smith's  map  this  harbor  was  designa- 
ted by  the  English  name  of  Plymouth,  and  was  indicated 
on  it  as  a  fit  place  for  settlement.  The  season  was  too 
far  advanced  to  admit  of  any  further  search,  and  the  ex- 
plorers returned  to  the  ship,  which  soon  dropped  anchor 
Dec.  16.  at  the  selected  spot.  In  compliment,  it  is  said,  to  the 
kind  treatment  received  at  the  English  city  of  Plymouth, 
the  name  of  NEW  PLYMOUTH  was  retained.  The  settlers 
themselves  are  often  designated  as  the  Plymouth  pilgrims. 
Distributed  into  nineteen  families,  the  colonists  were  soon 


SETTLEMENT   OF   NEW  BNGfEANB. 


161 


busy  in  felling  trees  and  building  hofcsesy  which  they  CHAPTER 
placed  on  a  rising  ground  in  two  rows,  with  a  store-house  __i_i^a^_ 
in  the  midst.  1621. 

As  they  stood  in  some  fear  of  the  natives,  who  seemed 
carefully  to  avoid  them,  they  adopted  a  military  organi-  January, 
zation,  and  chose  for  their  leader  Miles  Standish,  who 
had  served  as  a  soldier  in  Holland.      Some  small  cannon 
were  presently  landed. 

During  the  winter  little  or  nothing  was  seen  of  the 
natives,  but  early  in  the  spring  an  Indian  walked  boldly 
into  the  village,  and  surprised  the  inhabitants  by  calling 
out,  "Welcome,  Englishmen!"  He  was  a  sagamore, 
or  petty  chief  from  the  eastward,  by  name  Samoset,  and 
had  learned  a  little  English  of  the  fishermen  who  fre- 
quented that  coast.  He  introduced  another  Indian,  nam- 
ed Squanto,  the  same  lately  left  behind  by  Dormer,  who 
also  spoke  a  little  English,  and,  in  conjunction  with  Sa- 
moset, acted  as  interpreter,  guide,  and  pilot,  to  the  set- 
tlers. Another  Indian,  named  Hobomoc,  attached  him- 
self with  great  zeal  to  the  service  of  the  colonists,  and 
insisted  upon  living  among  them.  By  means  of  these 
friendly  Indians  an  intercourse  was  presently  opened  with 
Massasoit,  head  chief  of  the  Pocanokets  or  Wampano- 
ags,  inhabiting  the  country  westward  of  New  Plymouth. 
An  interview,  marked  at  first  with  a  little  distrust,  but 
soon  succeeded  by  confidence,  took  place  between  Gov- 
ernor Carver  and  Massasoit ;  presents  were  exchanged  ; 
and  a  league  of  friendship  was  entered  into,  which  for 
many  years  was  faithfully  observed. 

A  fatal  distemper,  perhaps  the  small-pox  or  some 
malignant  fever,  had  lately  raged  among  the  Indians  on 
these  shores,  and,  indeed,  along  the  whole  coast  of  New 
England.  •  Several  tribes,  especially  those  composing 
the  Massachusetts  confederacy,  inhabiting  the  bay  of 
I,  L 


162  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  that  name,  north  of  New  Plymouth,  had  been  almost  ex- 
terminated by  it.     The  coast  was  thus  left  open  to  set- 
1621.  tlement,  a  circumstance  noted  by  the  early  New  En- 
gland historians  as  a  special  providence. 

Shortly  after  the  treaty  with  Massasoit,  the  Mayflow- 
April  5.  er,  which  had  wintered  at  Plymouth,  set  sail  on  her 
homeward  passage.  Already,  before  her  departure,  the 
number  of  the  colonists  had  been  greatly  thinned  ;  others 
died  soon  after  ;  among  the  rest,  Governor  Carver,  whose 
place  was  supplied  by  William  Bradford.  The  winter 
had  been  unusually  mild,  but  the  colonists  were  so  ill 
provided  against  it,  and  had  suffered  so  much  from  cold 
and  exposure  before  their  houses  were  finished,  that  with- 
in the  first  five  months  they  lost  more  than  half  their 
number.  Once  there  were  only  seven  persons  well  enough 
to  attend  the  sick.  But,  as  the  spring  advanced,  the  sur- 
vivors grew  strong  again,  and,  though  often  pinched  for 
food,  none  died  for  the  next  three  years. 

To  improve  the  friendship  with  Massasoit,  Edward 
Winslow,  one  of  the  most  intelligent  and  energetic  of  the 
colonists,  was  sent  across  the  country  with  a  companion, 
and  Squanto  as  a  guide,  to  visit  that  chief  at  his  village 
of  Pocanoket,  on  Narraganset  Bay.  The  presents  they 
carried  were  graciously  received ;  but  the  Indian  king 
was  so  unprovided  with  food — his  corn  being  out,  and 
game  not  in  season — that  his  visitors  came  near  starv- 
ing. They  were  honored,  however,  by  sleeping  on  the 
same  bed  with  Massasoit  and  his  squaw,  they  on  one 
end  and  the  Indians  on  the  other.  It  was  of  plank, 
raised  a  foot  from  the  ground,  covered  with  a  thin  mat, 
and  horribly  infested  by  vermin. 

Corbitant,  one  of  Massasoit's  sachems,  being  suspected 
of  infidelity  to  that  chief  and  of  hostility  to  the  colonists, 
whose  interpreter  Squanto  he  had  seized,  and  was  believed 


SETTLEMENT    OF    NEW   ENGLAND.  163 

to  have  killed.  Standish  marched  against  him  with  four-  CHAPTER 

VI 

teen  men.     Corbitant's  village  was  beset,  some  of  the___. 
inhabitants  wounded,  and  the  prisoner  released.    Alarmed  1621. 
by  this  movement,  nine  petty  sachems  came  to  Plymouth, 
and  signed  a  paper  acknowledging  themselves  loyal  sub-  Sept.  13 
jects  of  King  James. 

Shortly  after  this  submission,  a  boat  with  ten  men 
was  sent  to  explore  Massachusetts  Bay,  some  forty  miles 
to  the  northward.  That  bay  was  found  to  terminate  in 
a  spacious  harbor  studded  with  islands,  and  encompass- 
ing the  three-crested  peninsula  of  Shawmut,  site  of  the 
present  city  of  Boston.  Toward  the  south  the  Blue  Hills 
were  visible,  from  whose  Indian  name  Massachusetts  is 
said  to  be  derived.  Two  or  three  rivers  entered  the 
bay ;  several  peninsulas  projected  into  it ;  and  its  shores 
offered  so  many  favorable  positions,  that  the  Plymouth 
men  could  not  but  wish  they  had  settled  there.  They 
found  at  Shawmut  a  few  Indians  under  Obattinewat,  a 
petty  sachem  dependent  on  Massasoit;  but  as  he  lived 
in  perpetual  dread  of  the  Tarenteens,  or  eastern  Indians, 
who  were  accustomed  to  send  war  parties  along  the  coast 
in  canoes,  he  did  not  dare  to  remain  long  in  one  place. 

Toward  the  commencement  of  winter  thirty-five  new  NOV.  1Q. 
colonists  arrived  in  the  Fortune,  including  those  left  be- 
hind by  the  Speedwell.  Cushman  came  with  them,  and 
brought  a  patent  from  the  Council  for  New  England,  ob- 
tained through  the  good  offices  of  Sir  Ferdinando  Gor- 
ges; but  he  did  not  remain  long  in  the  colony.  After 
delivering  an  elaborate  discourse  "  on  the  sin  and  danger 
of  self-love,"  afterward  printed  in  London,  and  still  ex- 
tant, intended  to  repress  the  discontents  already  apparent 
at  the  joint-stock  system  on  which  the  colony  was  founded, 
Cushman  returned  in  the  Fortune  to  render  an  account  Dec. 
of  matters  to  the  merchant  adventurers,  and  to  look  after 


HISTO&Y  OF  THE    UNITED   STATES. 


the  interests  of  the  colony  in  London,  where  it  was  nee- 

.-.fj'r  rf 

essary  to  have  a  confidential  agent.  He  took  with  him 
&r  cargo  a  quantity  of  furs,  sassafras,  clapboards,  and 
wainscot,  valued  at  £500,  about  $2400,  the  first  re- 
mittance from  New  Plymouth.  But,  as  the  ship  passed 
up  the  English  Channel,  she  was  seized,  on  what  pre- 
tense does  not  appear,  and  carried  into  a  French  port; 
nor  was  she  dismissed  except  at  the  expense  of  the  J>est 
part  of  her  lading. 

The  confederacy  of  the  Narragansets,  inhabiting  the 
west  shore  of  Narraganset  Bay,  having  escaped  the  rav- 
ages of  the  pestilence  so  fatal  to  the  Massachusetts  and 
other  tribes,  were  comparatively  numerous  and  pow- 
erful, and  Massasoit  stood  in  much  awe  of  them.  Ca* 
nonicus,  their  sachem,  by  way  of  defiance,  had  sent  to 
Plymouth  a  bundle  of  arrows  tied  with  a  rattlesnake's 
skin.  Bradford,  nothing  daunted,  sent  back  the  same 
skin  stuffed  with  powder  and  ball.  The  superstitious 
Indians  took  it  for  some  fatal  charm,  and  passed  it  in 
ferof  from  one  village  to  another,  till  it  came  back  again 
Feb.  to  Plymouth,  It  was  judged  proper,  however,  by  the 
Plymouth  authorities,  to  take  precautions,  and  the  village 
was  surrounded  by  a  palisade  of  timbers  driven  into  the 
ground,  a  mile  in  circuit,  with  three  gates — no  incon- 
siderable work  for  so  feeble  a  colony. 

The  Fortune  had  brought  no  provisions,  and  the  whole 
company  were  obliged  to  subsist  for  six  months  on  half 
allowance.  Even  this  scanty  supply  was  obtained  with 
difficulty,  and  by  spring  there  was  a  famine.  Wins- 
May?  few  sailed  to  Monhiggon  in  quest  of  food,  and  the  wants 
of  the  colony  were  partially  relieved  by  the  charity  of 
the  fishing  crews  assembled  there.  Already  some  fish- 
ing villages  began  to  be  formed  on  the  main-land  shore 
opposite  to  Monhiggon,  next  to  Plymouth  the  oldest  set- 


SETTLEMENT  ©F  NEW  J!,N#LAHP. 

tlement  in  New  England.  Supplies  both  of  provisions  JWW&PTER 
and  goods  for  trading  with  the  Indians  were  afterward.  r 
obtained  from  other  fishing  vessels,  sometimes  at  ex-  4tt£2.2. 
orbitant  prices ;  but  without  these  supplies  the  infant 
colony  must  have  perished.  The  London  partners  sent 
out  no  provisions  and  very  few  goods.  A  scarcity  of 
food,  often  extreme,  continued  to  a  greater  or  less  extent 
for  the  first  four  years.  The  agricultural  arrangements 
of  the  colony  were  as  yet  very  imperfect,  and  the  chief 
dependence  during  all  that  period  was  on  corn  purchased 
of  the  Indians,  for  which  purpose  little  trading  voyages 
were  undertaken  to  Cape  Cod  and  the  adjoining  coasts. 
The  clams  with  which  the  harbor  of  Plymouth  abounded 
were  also  an  essential  resource.  At  certain  seasons  fish 
were  plenty ;  but  for  some  time  the  colonists  were  so 
unprovided  as  to  have  neither  nets  nor  other  tackle  with 
which  to  take  them,  nor  salt  to  preserve  them. 

During  his  visit  to  Monhiggon,  Winslow  learned,  from 
a  vessel  just  arrived  from  Virginia,  the  rising  of  the  In- 
dians there,  and  the  massacre  of  many  of  the  colonists. 
This  news  occasioned  some  alarm  at  Plymouth,  and  the 
inhabitants  commenced  a  little  fort  on  the  crest  of  the 
rising  ground  inclosed  within  their  palisade.  This  fort, 
which  it  cost  them  much  labor  to  complete,  was  used  also 
as  a  meeting-house — a  place  of  assembly  and  worship. 

Weston,  who  had  taken  so  active  a  share  in  fitting 
out  the  Plymouth  colony,  dissatisfied  with  the  pecuniary 
result  of  that  experiment,  had  resolved  to  try  one  of  his 
own.  Sixty  men,  chiefly  indented  servants,  whom  he 
sent  out  to  begin  a  settlement,  trespassed  for  two  or  three  July, 
months  on  the  hospitality  of  the  people  of  Plymouth, 
whose  corn-fields  they  were  accused  of  robbing.  After 
establishing  themselves  at  Wtssagusset,  now  Weymouth^ 
on  the  south  shore  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  they  wasted 


166  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  their  provisions,  and  were  soon  reduced  to  great  dis- 
_1_  tress.     Dispersed  in  small  parties,  they  lived  as  they 
1623.  could,  begging  or  stealing  from  the  Indians,  who  pres- 
ently combined  for  the  destruction  of  these  importunate 
intruders. 

Just  as  this  plot  was  maturing,  the  people  at  Plym- 
outh, having  heard  that  a  Dutch  trading  shallop  was 
ashore  in  Narraganset  Bay,  sent  Winslow  to  open  a  com- 
munication with  the  Dutchmen,  and  also  to  condole  with 
Massasoit,  who  was  reported  to  lie  dangerously  sick. 
Before  Winslow  arrived  the  Dutchmen  were  gone  ;  Mas- 
sasoit was  found  at  the  point  of  death,  insensible,  and 
surrounded  by  pow-wows — priests  or  conjurers,  that  is, 
making  horrible  noises  and  grimaces,  after  the  Indian  fash- 
ion. Winslow  turned  the  pow-wows  out  of  the  wigwam, 
assumed  the  part  of  physician,  and  soon  put  his  patient 
in  the  way  of  recovery.  Out  of  gratitude,  he  revealed 
the  project  for  the  destruction  of  the  white  men  at  Wis- 
sagusset,  in  which,  it  would  seem,  he  had  been  invited 
to  join. 

Alarmed  at  this  information,  Winslow  hastened  back 
Mar.  23.  to  Plymouth,  and,  as  it  happened  then  to  be  a  "  yearly 
court  day,"  the  matter  was  referred  by  the  governor  to 
the  "  body  of  the  company ;"  but  they  referred  it  back 
again,  with  discretionary  authority,  to  the  governor,  his 
assistant,  and  Captain  Standish.  The  captain  was  ac- 
cordingly dispatched,  with  eight  men,  under  pretense  of 
trade,  to  judge  of  the  certainty  of  the  plot,  to  inform  the 
Wissagusset  men  of  their  danger,  and  with  orders  to  bring 
back  the  head  of  Wituwamat,  a  noted  warrior  accused 
of  being  the  principal  instigator  of  the  designs  against 
the  English.  Standish,  "  a  man  of  very  little  stature, 
yet  of  a  very  hot  and  angry  temper,"  found  the  Indians 
full  of  taunts  and  bravadoes.  Taking  this  as  evidence  of 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.      ^gf 

the  reality  of  the  plot,  he  watched  his  opportunity,  and,  CHAPTER 

having  the  obnoxious  chief,  with  three  of  his  followers,  in 

a  cabin  with  himself  and  several  others,  he  closed  the  1622. 
door,  made  a  signal  to  his  men,  snatched  a  knife  from 
the  neck  of  one  of  the  warriors,  and  stabbed  him  to  the 
heart.  Of  the  other  Indians,  two  were  slain  ;  the  fourth, 
a  boy,  was  taken  alive  and  hanged.  Alarmed  at  this 
attack,  the  Indians  fled  to  the  swamps  and  concealed 
themselves ;  not,  however,  till  several  more  had  been 
killed.  The  plantation  at  Wissagusset  was  abandoned. 
A  few  of  the  people  removed  to  Plymouth ;  the  rest 
sailed  to  Monhiggon,  and  obtained  a  passage  home  from 
the  fishing  vessels  there.  Wituwamat's  head  was  car- 
ried to  Plymouth,  stuck  upon  a  pole,  and  set  up,  by  way 
of  warning,  in  the  fort.  These  bloody  proceedings  ex- 
cited some  misgivings  in  the  mind  of  John  Robinson, 
who,  though  still  in  Holland,  extended  a  pastor's  over- 
sight to  the  colony,  which  he  intended  presently  to  join. 
"  Oh,  how  happy  a  thing  it  would  have  been,"  he  wrote 
in  a  letter  to  the  colonists,  "  that  you  had  converted  some 
before  you  killed  any." 

The  privileges  of  exclusive  traffic  and  fishery  lately 
granted  by  the  king's  patent  to  the  Council  for  New  En- 
gland, was  by  no  means  agreeable  to  the  private  mer- 
chants engaged  in  the  North  American  fisheries  and  the 
peltry  trade.  Soon  after  the  issue  of  that  patent,  James's 
third  Parliament  had  met — the  same  that  complained  of 
the  Virginia  Company's  lotteries  as  a  raising  of  money 
without  parliamentary  warrant.  The  pretensions  of  the 
Council  for  New  England  to  an  exclusive  right  of  fishing 
were  also  denounced  in  the  House  of  Commons  as  a  griev- 
ance ;  and  a  committee  reported  that  the  charter  was  vi- 
tiated by  the  clause  in  it  which  forfeited  the  ships  of  in- 
terlopers, a  thing  "which  could  not  be,"  without  sane- 


168  HISTOfc*  W   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  tion  of  Parliament.      The  Commons  passed  a  bill  for  the 

VL 

protection  of  the  fishermen,  but  it  failed  in  the  Lords. 

1623.  Liberty  in  England  was  not  yet  fledged;  and  Coke,  the 
famous  lawyer,  Pyrn,  and  other  leaders  of  the  Commons, 
were  imprisoned  after  the  adjournment  for  their  alleged 
factious  behavior. 

Parliamentary   interference   having    thus   failed,  the 

Nov.  26.  Council  for  New  England,  sustained  by  a  royal  procla- 
mation prohibiting  disorderly  trading  within  the  limits  of 

1623.  their  patent,  sent  out  Francis  West,  the  same  person, 
probably,  who  was  temporary  governor  of  Virginia  a  few 
years  later,  with  a  commission  as  admiral  of  New  En- 
gland. Already  thirty  or  forty  fishing  vessels  sailed  an- 
nually to  that  coast,  upon  which  West  sought  to  impose 
a  tribute  in  the  shape  of  license  money. 

The  indefatigable  Gorges,  engaged  for  so  many  years 
in  traffic  to  the  coast  of  New  England,  had  found  a  part- 
ner much  to  his  mind 'in  John  Mason,  "  a  man  of  action," 
bred  a  merchant,  afterward  a  naval  commander,  and 
more  recently  an  adventurer  in  the  projected,  settlement 
of  Newfoundland.  Having  been  appointed  secretary  to 
the  Council  for  New  England,  Mason  had  obtained  the 

1621.  grant  of  a  tract  which  he  named  Mariana,  extending 
from  Naumkeag,  now  Salem,  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mer- 

1622.  rimac.     This  was  followed  the  next  year  by  a  grant  to 
Gorges  and  Mason  jointly,  of  the  whole  tract  from  the 
Merrimac  to  the  Kennebec,  extending  westward  to  the 
River  of  Canada.     This  grant  was  named  LACONIA.     Ma- 
son and  Gorges  induced  several  merchants  to  adventure 
with  them  as  the  "  Company  of  Laconia,"  and  sent  out 
a   colony  of  fishermen,  a  part  of  whom,  under  David 
Thompson,  settled  at  Little  Harbor,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Piscataqua,  afterward  called  Strawberry  Bank,  now  Ports- 
mouth.    The  others  settled  some  eight  miles  up  the  river. 

r  r 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       }  (5  g 

at  Gocheco,  now  Dover,  under  William   and  Edmond  CHAPTER 

Hilton,  fishmongers  of  London,  one  of  whom,  however, 

had  qualified  himself  for  the  enterprise  by  a  short  resi-  1623. 
dence  at  New  Plymouth.  But  the  company  of  Laconia 
did  not  prosper ;  and  these  towns,  the  oldest  in  New 
Hampshire,  and,  with  a  few  exceptions,  the  oldest  in  the 
United  States,  remained  for  several  years  little  more 
than  mere  fishing  stations.  Thompson  soon  left  Little 
Harbor,  and  established  himself  an  an  island  in  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  which  still  bears  his  name. 

Coternporaneously  with  the  settlement  on  the  Piscat- 
aqua,  another  colony  was  attempted  further  to  the  east- 
ward. With  very  little  regard,  it  would  seem,  to  the 
patent  of  the  Council  for  New  England,  though  per- 
haps with  their  consent,  James  I.,  in  his  character  as 
King  of  Scotland,  had  issued,  under  the  Scottish  seal,  a,  1621. 
grant  of  all  the  territory  between  the  Gulf  of  St.  Law- 
rence and  the  River  St.  Croix,  under  the  laame  of  NOVA 
SCOTIA,  or  New  Scotland,  to  Sir  William  Alexander,  a. 
poet  and  court  favorite,  afterward  Secretary  of  State  for 
Scotland,  and  created  Earl  of  Stirling.  This  grant  in- 
cluded not  only  the  present  province  so  called,  but  also 
the  territory  now  known  as  New  Brunswick.  A  ves- 
sel was  fitted  out,  which  explored  the  shores  and  entered  1623. 
some  of  the  harbors  in  the  vicinity  of  Cape  Sable  ^  Iwt 
the  French  were  found  to  be  already  established  at  sev- 
eral points  along  this  coast. 

About  the  time  of  the  appointment  of  West  as  Ad- 
miral of  New  England,  a  territory  of  ten  miles  on  the 
northern  coast  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  adjoining  Mason's 
grant  of  Mariana,  and  extending  thirty  miles  inland,, 
was  bestowed  on  Robert  Gorges,  son  of  Sir  Ferdinando* 
He  was  appointed  also  Lieutenant  General  of  New  En- 
gland, with  a  council,  of  which  West,  the  admiral*  and 


170     HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  Governor  of  New  Plymouth  for  the  time  being,  were 

to  be  members,  with  power  to  restrain  interlopers,  al- 

1623.  ready  beginning  to  establish  themselves  along  the  coast. 
Gorges  sailed  to  take  possession  of  his  government,  tak- 
ing with  him  a  number  of  indented  servants,  and  accom- 
panied by  one  Morrell,  a  clergyman  appointed  by  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  commissary  of  ecclesiastical 
affairs.  Gorges  and  Morrell  resided  a  year  or  more  in 
New  England,  a  part  of  the  time  at  Plymouth,  and  the 
remainder  at  Weston's  deserted  plantation  at  Wissagus- 
set,  where  Gorges  endeavored  to  establish  a  settlement, 
preferring  that  situation,  it  would  seem,  to  his  own 
grant  on  the  north  shore  of  the  bay.  At  Plymouth 
Gorges  encountered  Weston,  who  had  come  out  to  New 
England  to  look  after  his  colony,  but  had  been  ship- 
wrecked on  the  eastern  coast,  and  robbed  by  the  Indians, 
escaping  barely  with  his  life.  He  found  refuge  and  as- 
sistance at  Plymouth ;  but  the  good  people  there  re- 
garded his  misfortunes  as  a  judgment  upon  him  for  de- 
serting them,  and  Gorges  appears  to  have  taken  some 
proceedings  against  him  as  an  interloper. 

The  colony  of  New  Plymouth,  though  still  the  chief 
settlement  of  New  England,  remained,  as  yet,  very  fee- 
ble. The  best  dish  that  could  be  set  before  the  third  sup- 
ply of  colonists,  about  sixty  in  number,  who  came  in  the 
August  Anne  and  the  Little  James,  was  a  lobster,  a  piece  of  fish, 
and  a  cup  of  "fair  spring  water."  As  to  bread,  there 
was  none  in  the  colony.  Among  the  passengers  was 
Nathaniel  Morton,  then  a  boy  eleven  years  old,  a  nephew 
of  Governor  Bradford,  afterward  secretary  and  historian 
of  the  colony.  The  Anne  was  laden  with  clapboards, 
and  such  furs  as  had  been  collected ;  and  Winslow  went 
back  in  her,  to  obtain  in  London  a  supply  of  goods, 
without  which  the  little  settlement  was  in  danger  of 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       1  7  J 

perishing.      He  published,  while  there,  a  tract,  entitled  CHAPTER 
"  Good  News  from  New  England,"  and,  having  succeed- _____ 
ed  in  obtaining  a  much-needed  loan  of  ^£1800,  nearly  1624. 
$9000,  he  returned  in  the  spring,  taking  with  him,  March, 
among  other  things,  a  few  cattle,  the  first  brought  to 
New  Plymouth. 

At  the  same  time  came  one  Lyford,  recommended  by 
some  of  the  partners  in  London  as  a  minister  for  the  col- 
ony. But  he  was  not  inclined  to  go  the  full  length  of 
the  separatists,  and  insisted  upon  administering  the  sac- 
rament by  virtue  of  his  episcopal  ordination.  To  this 
the  majority  would  not  consent ;  some  disturbance  result- 
ed ;  and  a  ship  sailing  for  England  with  letters  from  Ly- 
ford on  board,  Bradford  followed  her  in  his  canoe,  exam- 
ined the  letters,  and  found  matters  therein  of  a  danger- 
ous tendency.  Lyford  was  presently  expelled,  along  with 
Oldham  and  Conant,  his  principal  adherents.  These  ex- 
pelled colonists  established  themselves  on  Nantasket,  at 
the  entrance  of  what  is  now  Boston  harbor.  These  pro- 
ceedings, with  a  growing  jealousy  and  difference  of  opin- 
ion upon  this  question  of  separation  from  the  Church  of 
England,  seem  to  have  increased  the  misunderstanding 
between  the  colonists  and  their  London  partners. 

The  non-existence  of  private  property,  the  discontent 
and  unwillingness  to  labor  thence  arising,  and  the  exor- 
bitant interest,  as  high  as  forty -five  per  cent.,  paid  for 
money  borrowed  in  London,  were  serious  drawbacks  to 
the  prosperity  of  New  Plymouth.  It  was  found  neces- 
sary, indeed,  to  enter  into  an  agreement  that  each  family  1623. 
should  plant  for  itself;  and  an  acre  of  land  was  accord-  1624. 
ingly  assigned  to  each  person  in  fee.  Under  this  stimulus, 
the  production  of  corn  soon  became  so  great,  that,  from 
buyers,  the  colonists  became  sellers  to  the  Indians.  At 
the  end  of  the  fourth  year  after  its  settlement,  Plymouth 
had  thirty-two  dwelling-houses,  and  a  hundred  and  eighty- 


[72  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

CHAPTER  four  inhabitants.     The  general  stock,  or  whole  amount 
nf  the  investment,  personal  services  included,  amounted 
1624.  to  £7000,  or  $34,000.     The  London  partners  were  very 
unwilling  to  make  any  further  advances. 

John  Robinson  died  in  Holland,  and  several  years  elapsed 
before  his  family,  and  the  rest  of  the  Leyden  congrega- 
tion, could  find  means  to  transport  themselves  to  New 
Plymouth.  Those  already  there — passengers  by  the  May- 
flower, the  Fortune,  the  Anne,  and  the  Little  James — 
were  afterward  distinguished  as  the  "  old  comers,"  or 
"  forefathers."  Six  or  seven  years  elapsed  before  the  col- 
ony received  any  considerable  addition  to  its  numbers. 

The  lieutenant  general,  admiral,  and  archbishop's  com- 
missary for  New  England,  finding  little  subject-matter 
for  the  exercise  of  their  authority,  or  little  prospect  of 
any  respect  being  paid  to  it,  soon  quitted  the  country. 
Morrell,  who  had  employed  himself  in  writing  a  descrip- 
tive poem  in  Latin  and  English,  had  said  nothing  to  the 
settlers  at  New  Plymouth  about  his  ecclesiastical  au- 
thority till  he  was  just  about  leaving,  though  the  affair 
of  Lyford  might  seem  to  have  afforded  some  occasion  for 
its  exercise.  In  England,  the  rights  of  the  company 
were  again  brought  in  question.  James's  fourth  Parlia- 
ment had  no  sooner  met  than  the  New  England  charter 
was  referred  to  the  committee  of  grievances.  Sir  Ferdi- 
nando  Gorges  was  heard  by  counsel  on  behalf  of  the  pat- 
ent, which  Coke  pronounced  void  on  account  of  its  at- 
tempted monopoly  of  the  seas.  Another  bill  passed  the 
Commons  for  the  protection  of  the  fishermen,  but  it  failed 
again  in  the  Lords.  The  members  of  the  Council  for 
New  England,  contemplating,  perhaps,  a  surrender  of 
this  unpopular  charter,  appear  to  have  divided  their  ter- 
ritory into  provinces,  for  which  they  cast  lots  in  the 
presence  of  King  James  ;  but  this  division  was  not  at  this 
time  carried  into  effect. 


SETTLEMENT   OF   NEW   ENGLANB.  173 

Presently  after  his  accession.  Charles  I.  renewed  the  CHAPTER 

VI 

grant  of  Nova  Scotia,  with  authority  to  the  grantee  to  _!__ 
create  an  order  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  hereditary  baro-  1625. 
nets ;   and  these  titles,  sold  by  Alexander,  a  number  of 
which  are  still  in  existence,  proved  a  more  profitable 
speculation  than  the  planting  of  colonies. 

At  the  end  of  the  seven  years  originally  limited  in  the  1627. 
agreement  between  the  Plymouth  colonists  and  the  Lon-    Nov- 
don  adventurers,  the  London  partners  agreed  to  sell  out 
their  interest  for  £1800,  or  about  $9000,  to  be  paid  in 
nine  annual  instalments.     Eight  of  the  principal  colo- 
nists, in  consideration  of  a  six  years'  monopoly  of  the 
Indian  traffic,  gave  their  private  bonds  for  the  amount. 
The  join t-stoek  principle  was  now  abandoned  ;  a  division 
was  made  of  the  movable  property  ;  and  twenty  acres  of  1628. 
land,  nearest  the  town,  were  assigned  in  fee  to  each  colonist.  Januai7- 

The  soil  of  New  Plymouth  was  very  poor ;  some  not 
very  successful  attempts  were  made  at  the  cultivation 
of  tobacco ;  but  the  chief  reliance  to  pay  for  cloths  and 
other  goods  from  England  was  the  peltry  collected  by 
trade  with  the  Indians.  To  save  the  voyage  round 
Cape  Cod,  and  to  facilitate  the  traffic  with  the  Indians 
on  Narraganset  Bay  and  Long  Island  Sound,  a  trading 
house  was  built  at  the  head  of  Buzzard's  Bay.  A  grant 
was  also  obtained  from  the  Council  for  New  England  of 
a  large  tract  at  the  mouth  of  the  Kennebec,  where  a  post 
was  established,  and  a  lucrative  traffic  opened  with  the 
eastern  Indians.  A  friendly  message,  brought  by  Secre-  1627. 
tary  De  Hazier,  had  lately  been  received  from  the  Dutch  Qctober- 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson.  From  these  Dutchmen  the 
use  of  wampum  was  learned,  soon  found  very  serviceable 
in  the  trade  with  the  eastern  Indians.  There  was  not 
yet  capital  enough  to  engage  in  the  jcod  fishery,  but  a  step 
was  made  toward  it  in  the  establishment  of  a  salt  work. 


174  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER       Straggling  settlers,  with  or  without  grants  from  the 
Council  for  New  England,  were  now  fast  planting  them- 

1625.  selves  along  the  coast.  East  of  the  Piscataqua,  obscure 
hamlets  of  fishermen  were  established  at  Agamenticus, 
now  York,  and  at  the  mouth  of  the  Saco.  A  party  of 
some  thirty  persons,  under  a  Captain  Wollaston,  had  set 
up  a  plantation  in  Massachusetts  Bay,  not  far  from  Wis- 
sagusset,  at  a  place  which  they  called  Mount  Wollaston, 
now  Quincy.  T*his  plantation  presently  fell  under  the 
control  of  one  Morton,  "  a  pettifogger  of  Furnival's  Inn," 
or,  as  he  describes  himself,  "  of  Clifford's  Inn,  gentle- 
man." He  changed  the  name  to  Merry  Mount ;  sold 
powder  and  shot  to  the  Indians  ;  gave  refuge  to  runaway 
servants ;  aiuj.  set  up  a  May -pole,  upon  which  occasion 
he  broached  a  cask  of  wine  and  a  hogshead  of  ale,  and 
held  a  high  revel  and  carousal.  The  people  of  Plymouth 
were  requested  by  the  other  settlers  to  interfere ;  and 

1628.  Morton  was  seized  by  the  redoubtable  Standish,  and  sent 
prisoner  to  England.  Eight  plantations,  from  Piscat- 
aqua to  Plymouth,  some  of  them  only  single  families, 
contributed  to  the  expense.  .^? 

Though  their  number  did  not  yet  amount  to  three 
hundred,  the  Plymouth  colonists  considered  themselves 
as  now  firmly  established.  "  It  was  not  with  them  as 
with  other  men,  whom  small  things  could  discourage,  or 
small  discontents  cause  to  wish  themselves  at  home 
again ;"  so  they  stated  in  their  application  to  the  Coun- 
cil for  New  England  for  a  new  patent.  They  presently 

1630.  obtained  it,  with  an  assignment  as  boundaries,  on  the 

June  13.  }an(j  gij^  Of  two  imeS)  the  one  drawn  northerly  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Narraganset  River,  the  other  westerly  from 
Cohasset  rivulet,  to  meet  "  at  the  uttermost  limits  of  a 
country  or  place  called  Pocanoket."  The  tract  on  the 
Kennebec  was  also  included  in  this  grant. 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.      ^75 

This  patent  gave  a  title  to  the  soil ;  but  prerogatives  CHAPTER 

of  government,  according  to  the  ideas  of  the  English , 

lawyers,  could  only  be  exercised  under  a  charter  from  1630 
the  crown.     A  considerable  sum  was  spent  in  the  en- 
deavor to  obtain  such  a  charter,  but  without  success. 

Relying,  however,  upon  their  original  compact,  the 
colonists  gradually  assumed  all  the  prerogatives  of  gov- 
ernment ;  even  the  power,  after  some  hesitation,  of  capi- 
tal punishment.  No  less  than  eight  capital  offenses  are 
enumerated  in  the  first  Plymouth  code,  including  trea-  1636. 
son  or  rebellion  against  the  colony,  and  "  solemn  compac- 
tion or  conversing  with  the  devil."  Trial  by  jury  was 
early  introduced,  but  the  punishments  to  be  inflicted  on 
minor  offenses  remained  for  the  most  part  discretionary. 

For  eighteen  years  all  laws  were  enacted  in  a  general 
assembly  of  all  the  colonists.  The  governor,  chosen  an- 
nually, was  but  president  of  a  council,  in  which  he  had 
a  double  vote.  It  consisted  first  of  one,  then  of  five, 
and  finally  of  seven  counselors,  called  assistants.  So 
little  were  political  honors  coveted  at  New  Plymouth, 
that  it  became  necessary  to  inflict  a  fine  upon  such  as, 
being  chosen,  declined  to  serve  as  governor  or  assistant. 
None,  however,  were  to  be  obliged  to  serve  for  two  years 
in  succession. 

The  constitution  of  the  Church  was  equally  demo- 
cratic. For  the  first  eight  years  there  was  no  pastor, 
unless  Robinson,  still  in  Holland,  might  be  considered 
in  that  light.  Lyford,  sent  out  by  the  London  partners, 
was  refused  and  expelled.  Brewster,  the  ruling  elder, 
and  such  private  members  as  had  the  gift  of  prophecy, 
officiated  as  exhorters.  On  Sunday  afternoons  a  ques- 
tion was  propounded,  to  which  all  spoke  who  had  any 
thing  to  say.  Even  after  they  adopted  the  plan  of  a 
pastor,  no  minister,  it  was  observed,  stayed  long  at  New 
Plymouth. 


176  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER    VII. 

COLONY  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.    NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 
LIGONIA.    PEMAQUID. 


CHAPTER  Jt>E  SIDES  the  settlements  mentioned  in  the  previous 

VII. 


BESIDES 

chapter  made  or  attempted  on  the  coast  of  New  En- 
gland, there  had  been  another,  of  no  great  consequence 
in  itself,  but  interesting  as  the  embryo  of  the  colony  of 
Massachusetts  Bay. 

White,  a  clergyman  of  Dorchester,  in  the  west  of 
England,  a  Puritan,  though  not  a  separatist,  had  per- 

1624.  suaded  several  merchants  of  that  city  to  attempt  a  set- 
tlement in  New  England  in  conjunction  with  the  fish- 
ing business.  The  rocky  promontory  of  Cape  Anne, 
which  forms  the  north  shore  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  was 
fixed  upon  for  this  purpose ;  and  Lyford  and  Conant, 
the  same  who  had  been  expelled  from  New  Plymouth 
by  the  zeal  of  the  stricter  separatists  of  that  colony, 
were  taken  into  employ,  the  first  as  preacher  or  chap- 
lain, the  other  as  general  manager.  This  undertaking, 
like  other  similar  enterprises,  proved  more  expensive  and 
less  profitable  than  had  been  expected.  It  was  presently 

1626.  abandoned ;  Lyford  removed  to  Virginia ;  but  Conant, 
relying  upon  the  further  co-operation  of  White,  betook 
himself,  with  three  companions,  and  a  flock  of  cattle 
sent  out  by  his  employers,  to  Naumkeag,  a  fitter  place, 
in  his  judgment,  for  a  settlement. 

White  exerted  himself  to  find  new  adventurers,  and 
not  without  success.  The  English  Puritans,  for  years 
past,  had  been  growing  more  and  more  uneasy.  Many 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       ^77 

clergymen  of  that  cast  had  been  silenced  OT  deprived  of  CHAPTER 
their  cures  for  nonconformity,  and  the  present  fashion 
of  colonization  in  America,  as  well  aB  the  example  of  1628. 
the  Plymouth  colony,  had  suggested  the  idea  of  a  Puri- 
tan refuge  across  the  Atlantic.  Wifti  this  view,  John 
Humphrey,  a  brother-in-law  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  John 
Endicott,  and  four  others,  gentlemen  of  Dorchester,  ob- 
tained, at  White's  instigation,  from  the  Council  for  New 
England,  a  grant  of  the  coast  between  Laconia  on  the  March  id. 
one  side,  and  the  Plymouth  patent  on  the  other,  in- 
cluding the  whole  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  This  grant 
extended  westward  to  the  Pacific,  coterminate  in  that 
direction  with  the  New  England  patent  itself;  north 
and  south  it  was  bounded  by  two  parallel  lines,  the  one 
three  miles  north  of  "  any  and  every  part"  of  the  Merri- 
mac,  the  other  three  miles  south  of  "any  and  every  part" 
of  Charles  River,  one  of  the  streams  flowing  into  the 
head  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  so  named  on  Smith's 
map  of  New  England.  Part  of  this  tract  on  the  sea- 
coast  had  been  conveyed  some  years  before  to  Mason, 
under  the  name  of  Mariana,  as  already  mentioned,  and 
another  smaller  portion  to  Robert  Gorges,  the  late  lieu- 
tenant general.  He  was  dead;  but  his  brother  and 
heir  had  conveyed  a  part  of  this  tract  to  Oldham,  the 
exile  from  Plymouth,  who  had  established  himself  as  an 
Indian  trader  at  Nantasket.  The  rest  had  been  trans- 
ferred to  Sir  William  Brereton,  who  about  this  time 
sent  over  indented  servants,  and  began  a  settlement, 
probably  at  Winmssimet,  now  Chelsea.  The  Earl  of 
Warwick  appears  also  to  have  had  a  claim  to  this  ter- 
ritory, or  a  part  of  it — perhaps  under  the  incomplete 
partition  mentioned  in  the  previous  chapter  ;  but,  what- 
ever it  was,  he  presently  relinquished  it  to  the  Massa- 
chusetts patentees.  Those  patentees,  indeed,  for  some 
I.  M 


178  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  reason  not  very  apparent,  seem  to  have  regarded  all  tho 

previous  grants  as  void  against  them. 

1628.       New  partners  were  soon  found.     John  Winthrop,  oi 
Groton,  in  Suffolk,  educated  a  lawyer,  a  gentleman  of 
handsome  landed  property,  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  and 
other  wealthy  Puritans  in  London  and  the  vicinity,  be- 
came interested  in  the  enterprise ;  and,  to  prepare  the 
way  for  a  larger  migration,  John  Endicott,  "  a  fit  instru- 
ment to  begin  this  wilderness  work,"  indefatigable,  un- 
daunted, austere,  yet  of  a  "  sociable  and  cheerful  spirit," 
was  dispatched  at  once,  with  sixty  or  seventy  people,  to 
make  the  commencement  of  a  settlement.     Welcomed 
Sept.  14.  at  Naumkeag  by  Conant,  in  conformity  with  his  in- 
structions, he  soon  dispatched  a  small  party  by  land,  to 
explore  the  head  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  where  it  had 
been  resolved  to  plant  the  principal  colony.      The  penin- 
sula between  Charles  and  Mystic  River,  already  known 
as  Charleton  or  Charlestown,  was  found  in  possession 
of  one  Walford,  a  smith.     The  opposite  peninsula  of 
Shawmut  was  occupied  by  another  lonely  settler,  one 
Blackstone,  an  eccentric  non-conforming  clergyman.    The 
island,  now  East  Boston,  was  inhabited  by  Samuel  Mav- 
erick, an  Indian  trader,  who  had  a  little  fort  there,  with 
two  small  cannon.     On  Thompson's  Island,  more  to  the 
south,   dwelt  David  Thompson,   already  mentioned   as 
one  of  the  original  settlers  on  the  Piscataqua.     Oldham 
still  had  an  establishment  at  Nantasket,  though  at  this 
moment  he  was  in  England,  negotiating  with  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Company.     There  were  a  few  settlers,  it  is 
probable,  at  Winnissimet,  servants  of  Brereton ;  some, 
also,  at  Wissagusset,  and  a  few  more  at  Mount  "Wol- 
laston. 

Endicott  sent  home  loud  complaints  of  these   "  old 
planters,"  especially   in  relation   to   the  Indian  trade, 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


1T9 


which  formed  their  chief  business.     They  came,  in  fact,.  C.HAPTER 

VII 

in  direct  conflict  with  the  new  patentees^  who  claimed  an 


exclusive  right  of  Indian  traffic  within  the  limits  of  their\ 
patent. 

The  importance  of  this  trade  was  very  much  exaggera- 
ted. There  dwelt  on  the  shores  of  Massachusetts  Bay  only 
four  or  five  petty  sachems,  each  with  some  thirty  or  forty 
warriors,  of  whom  Cutshamiquin,  sagamore  of  Massachu- 
setts, seems  to  have  been  the  chief.  Only  to  these  tribes, 
with  the  Pawtuckets  at  the  falls  of  the  Merrimac,  and 
the  Nipmucks,  some  forty  miles  in  the  interior,  would  the 
Massachusetts  monopoly  extend.  The  chief  tribes  of  the 
New  England  coast  dwelt  either  north  or  south  of  the 
Massachusetts  limits.  Yet,  at  .Endicott's  suggestion, 
the  company  obtained  a  renewal  of  the  royal  proclama- 
tion of  1622  against  irregular  trading  with  the  Indians. 

New  associates,  meanwhile,  had  joined  the  company  in 
England,  including  several  from  Boston  and  its  vicinity, 
-in  Lincolnshire  ;  among  them,  Isaac  Johnson,  another 
brother-in-law  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln  ;  Thomas  Dudley, 
the  earl's  steward  ;  Simon  Bradstreet,  steward  to  the 
dowager  Countess  of  Warwick,  and  son-in-law  of  Dud- 
ley ;  William  Coddington,  a  wealthy  merchant  of  Bos- 
ton ;  and  Richard  Bellingham,  bred  a  lawyer  —  all  con- 
spicuous in  the  subsequent  history  of  Massachusetts. 
A  very  warm  interest  was  taken  in  the  enterprise  by  the 
Lady  Lincoln,  a  daughter  of  Lord  Say,  a  conspicuous 
Puritan  nobleman,  himself  active,  as  we  shall  presently 
see,  in  American  colonization.  The  company,  thus  re- 
enforced,  and  sustained  by  money  and  influential  friends, 
easily  obtained  a  royal  Charter  confirming  their  grant,  1629. 
and  superadding  powers  of  government.  .  March. 

This  charter,  modeled  after  that  of  the  late  Virginia 
Company,  vacated  by  Quo  Warranto  five  years  before, 


1&0  HISTORY   OF   THB  UKITEP   STATES. 

CHAPTER  ejected  the  patentees  and  their  associates  into  a  corpora- 
_.  tif*n?  by  the  name  of  "  Governor  and  Company  of  Mas- 
1629.  sachusetts  Bay,  in  New  England,"  with  power  to  ad- 
mit new  members  as  they  might  see  fit.  Their  affairs 
were  to  be  managed,  at  least  those  of  executive  routine, 
by  a  governor,  deputy  governor,  and  eighteen  assistants, 
by  whom  monthly  courts  were  to  be  held  for  that  pur- 
pose. The  annual  election  of  these  and  other  necessary 
officers,  the  enactment  of  civil  and  criminal  laws  for  the 
colony,  the  raising  of  money,  and  other  more  important 
aifairs,  were  to  be  transacted  at  great  and  general  courts 
of  all  the  freemen  or  stockholders,  held  quarterly.  The 
colonists  were  to  enjoy  the  rights  of  Englishmen  ;  but  no 
provision  was  made  for  securing  to  them  any  share  in 
the  local  government.  That  was  entirely  intrusted  to  the 
corporation  in  England.  No  royal  negative  was  reserved 
on  the  enactments  of  the  company ;  but  they  were  not 
to  be  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England.  These  enact- 
ments stood,  indeed,  precisely  on  the  same  ground  with 
the  by-laws  of  any  other  trading  company.  Nothing  was 
said  about  religion.  There  was  yet  no  intimation  that 
the  proposed  Settlement  was  to  be  exclusively  Puritan,  or 
had  any  special  religious  object  in  view.  Had  such  been 
the  case,  it  might  not  have  been  so  easy  to  obtain  a  char- 
ter, for  King  Charles  held  the  Puritans  in  no  less  detes- 
tation than  his  two  predecessors,  and  was  not  a  little 
provoked  at  the  part  they  had  just  taken  in  carrying  in 
the  House  of  Commons  the  Petition  of  Right. 

The  company  organized  itself  under  the  charter  by  tho 
choice  of  Matthew  Cradock  and  Thomas  Goffe,  two 
wealthy  London  merchants,  as  governor  and  deputy  gov- 
ernor. Preparations  were  at  once  made  for  extending 
the  settlement,  to  which  was  given  the  name  of  "  Lon- 
don's Plantation  in  the  Massachusetts  Bay."  The 


SETTLEMENT  OiB  NEW  ENGLAND. 


181 


executive  administration  of  the  colony  was  intrusted  to  CHAPTER 

VIL 

Endicott  as  governor,  to  be  assisted  by  twelve  nnnnsnl-  / 
ors ;  seven  named  by  the  company,  two  to  be  selected  1629. 
by  the  old  planters,  and  these  nine  to  add  three  more  to 
their  number.  The  old  planters  were  to  be  indulged  in 
a  limited  cultivation  of  tobacco,  which  was  strictly  for- 
bidden to  the  new  ones,  the  Puritans  not  having  yet  got 
over  their  objections  to  its  use.  Every  £,50,  about  $240, 
contributed  to  the  company's  stock  by  any  member,  enti- 
tled him  to  two  hundred  acres  of  land,  and  in  like  pro- 
portion for  sums  greater  or  less.  Every  stockholder  who 
emigrated  at  his  own  expense  was  to  receive  fifty  acres 
for  each  member  of  his  family,  and  the  same  quantity  for 
each  indented  servant  carried  with  him.  Persons  not 
stockholders,  emigrating  at  their  own  expense,  were  to  be 
allowed  fifty  acres  each,  and  as  much  more  for  each  in- 
dented servant,  with  an  additional  allowance  "  according 
to  their  charge  and  quality" — a  provision  construed  to 
extend  to  the  old  planters  already  there. 

Six  ships  were  soon  dispatched,  with  a  stock  of  cat- 
tle and  horses,  and  some  two  hundred  colonists,  most  of 
whom  were  indented  servants  of  the  company  or  some 
of  its  chief  members,  sent  out  at  an  expense  of  d£20, 
nearly  $100,  per  head.  Among  these  emigrants  were 
wheelwrights,  carpenters,  coopers,  ship-builders,  a  sur- 
geon, an  engineer,  and  three  "  godly  ministers,"  Skelton, 
Higginson,  and  Bright,  all  entertained  at  the  company's 
expense.  Besides  these  three  ministers  named  as  mem- 
bers of  Endicott's  council,  a  fourth,  one  Smith,  had  se- 
cured his  passage  and  placed  his  goods  on  board  before 
it  was  known  that  he  was  an  avowed  separatist.  This 
circumstance  excited  some  jealousy  and  alarm,  and  Smith 
was  obliged  to  promise  not  to  exercise  his  functions  with- 
in the  patent  without  Endicott's  leave.  Shortly  after 


18£  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  his  arrival  he  proceeded,  to  Plymouth,  where  he  officiated 
for  some  time  as  minister.  That  colony  received  also 
1629.  by  these  vessels  an  accession  of  thirty-five  persons,  the 
remainder  of  the  Ley  den  congregation,  including  Robin- 
son's family,  who  availed  themselves  of  this  opportunity 
to  join  their  friends  in  New  England. 

jURe.  Arriving  at  Naumkeag,  these  new  settlers  found  there 
a  few  corn-fields,  a  hamlet  of  eight  or  ten  rude  houses, 
with  a  larger  one  for  the  governor,  the  frame  of  which 
had  been  removed  from  Cape  Anne,  where  it  had  been 
originally  set  up  by  White's  associates.  Endicott  re- 
ceived by  this  arrival  ample  instructions,  with  particular 
directions  to  occupy  the  head  of  Massachusetts  Bay  ;  for 
which  purpose  about  a  hundred  of  the  settlers,  with 
Bright,  one  of  the  ministers,  were  sent  to  Charlestown, 
where  a  'town  was  laid  out  by  Graves,  the  engineer. 

Endicott,  since  his  arrival,  having  been  in  frequent  in- 
tercourse with  the  Plymouth  people,  had  adopted  most 
of  their  views  on  the  subject  of  church  government.  He 
found  ready  concurrence  on  the  part  of  Skelton  and  Hig- 
ginson,  the  two  ministers  who  remained  at  Naumkeag, 
to  which  was  now  given  the  name  of  Salem,  indicating 
a  place  of  peace  and  refuge.  Without  any  express  re- 
nunciation of  the  authority  of  the  Church  of  England, 
the  settlers  proceeded  to  constitute  themselves  into  a 
Church  of  their  own,  of  which  Skelton  was  appointed 
teacher,  and  Higginson  pastor.  Delegates  from  Plym- 
outh were  to  have  been  present  at  this  ceremony,  but 
were  prevented  by  contrary  winds;  they  arrived,  how- 
ever, in  season  to  give  the  right  hand  of  fellowship.  It 
was  significant  of  the  opinions  of  the  new  church  that 
the  English  ceremonials  and  Liturgy  were  laid  aside. 

All  were  not  prepared  for  this  innovation,  and  John 
and  Samuel  Browne,  one  a  lawyer,  the  other  a  merchant, 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


183 


and  both  members  of  Endicott' s  council,  protested  against  CHAPTER 
it.      They  insisted  on  the  use  of  the  Liturgy,  and  even_____ 
went  so  far  as  to  institute  separate  worship.     Availing  1629. 
himself  of  a  clause  in  his  instructions  which  authorized 
him  to  send  home  "  the  incorrigible,"  Endicott  arrested 
the  Brownes,  and  shipped  them  to  England  as.  "  factious 
and  evil  conditioned" — a  proceeding  characteristic  enough 
of  the  future  policy  of  the  colony.      The  Brownes  made 
loud  complaints  to  the  company,  and  the  governor  and 
assistants  wrote  pressingly  on  the  subject  to  Endicott  Oct.  16. 
and  the  ministers,  not  without  some  indications  of  alarm. 
"  Let  it  therefore  seem  good  unto  you,"  they  say  in  their 
letter  to  Endicott,  "  to  be  very  sparing  in  introducing 
any  laws  or  commands  which  may  render  yourself  or  us 
distasteful  to  the  state  here,  to  which,  as  we  ought,  we 
must  and  will  have  an  obsequious  eye."     But  the  man- 
agement of  the  company's  affairs  was  about  to  pass  into 
the  hands  of  persons  less  scrupulous  or  less  timid. 

Already  a  plan  was  formed  for  a  large  migration  to 
Massachusetts  Bay,  and  the  transfer  thither  of  the  char- 
ter, and  the  company  itself.  New  officers  were  chosen  Oct.  26. 
from  among  those  who  proposed  to  emigrate,  Winthrop 
as  governor,  and  Dudley  as  deputy,  with  a  new  board  of 
assistants.  Such  of  the  stockholders  as  remained  in  En- 
gland were  to  retain  for  seven  years  an  interest  in  the 
company's  stock,  reduced,  however,  to  cover  losses  and 
expenses,  to  one  third  its  original  amount.  This  stock, 
chargeable  with  half  the  military  and  ecclesiastical  ex- 
penses of  the  colony,  was  to  be  placed  for  management  in 
the  hands  of  ten  trustees,  five  resident  in  England  and 
five  in  the  colony,  who  were  to  have  as  compensation 
five  per  cent,  on  all  net  profits.  This  joint-stock  was  to 
be  entitled  for  seven  years  to  half  the  trade  in  beavers, 
the  sole  making  of  salt,  and  the  exclusive  right  of  trans- 


184  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

porting  passenger*  and  goods  at  certain  fixed  rates,  and 


of  supplying  the  colonists  from  a  store  or  magazine  at 

1629,  an  advance  of  twenty-five  per  cent,  on  the  cost.      At  the 
end  of  seven  years  there  was  to  be  a  division  among  the 
stockholders.     Nothing,  however,  is  recorded  of  any  such 
division,  and  probably  the  whole  stock  was  soon  sunk. 
There  are,  indeed,  but  faint  indications  of  any  trade  car- 
ried on  by  the  company.      As  a  compensation  for  the 
diminution  of  their  stock,  the  holders  were  to  have  an 
additional  two  hundred  acres  of  land  for  every  £50  orig- 
inally subscribed. 

1630.  Under  this  new  arrangement,  fifteen  ships,  equipped 
at  an  expense  of  £20,000,  nearly  $100,000,  conveyed 
to   Massachusetts   Bay   a   thousand   emigrants,   among 
them  several   persons  of  wealth  and  station  at  home, 
with   four   ministers,   Wilson,   Phillips,  Maverick,   and 
Warham.      On  board  was  a  large  stock  of  cattle,  with 
other  necessaries  for  beginning  a  settlement.      This  was 
by  far  the  most  numerous  and  best-appointed  expedition 
yet  dispatched  from  England  to  America. 

Winthrop  and  Dudley,  with  several  of  the  newly- 
chosen  assistants,  having  the  charter  in  their  custody, 
embarked  on  the  Arbella.  While  still  at  anchor  off  the 
Isle  of  Wight,  where  they  were  long  detained  by  con- 
April  7.  trary  winds,  they  issued,  the  day  before  sailing,  an  ad- 
dress "  to  the  rest  of  their  brethren  in  and  of  the  Church 
of  England,"  a  sort  of  defense  against  the  "  misreport" 
which,  it  seems,  had  begun  to  spread  of  their  intention 
to  separate  from  the  English  Church.  That  church 
was  spoken  of  in  terms  of  warm  affection.  Such  "  hope 
and  part"  as  they  had  obtained  "  in  the  common  salva- 
tion" they  freely  acknowledged  to  «  have  received  in  her 
bosom  and  sucked  it  in  her  breast." 

A  few  days  out,  an  alarm  was  raised  of  an  attack  by 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       ^§5 

Dunkirk  privateers ;  but  it  proved  false ;   the  Arbella,  CHAPTER 
with  her  three  consorts,  kept  on  their  course  ;  and,  after          ' 
a  stormy  and  tedious  passage,  arrived,  as  did  the  other    June- 
vessels  also,  some  at  Salem,  and  others  at  Charlestown.     July. 
It  was  at  Charlestown  that  the  governor,  deputy,  and 
their  immediate  followers  first  fixed  themselves.      But 
their  attention  was  soon  attracted  to  the  opposite  penin- 
sula, as  yet  in  the  sole  possession  of  the  solitary  Black- 
stone.      It  was  a  tract  of  about  six  hundred  acres,  thinly 
wooded,  and  almost  divided  at  high  tide  into  three  small 
islands,  each  a  considerable   hill,  with  gushing  springs 
of  fresh  water.      The  largest  hill,  crowned  by  three  dis- 
tinct eminences,  had  gained  for  the  peninsula  the  Eng- 
lish name  of  Trimountain.      Winthrop  and  his  people 
soon  took  possession  of  this  spot,  and  commenced  a  set- 
tlement,  which  they  called  BOSTON,   after  the  English 
town  in  Lincolnshire,  whence  Johnson  and  others  of  the 
principal  emigrants  came. 

A  ship  had  arrived  a  few  days  before  the  Arbella,  with 
a  company  from  the  w6st  of  England,  of  whom  Lud- 
low,  Endicott's  brother-in-law,  was  the  leader.  The 
master  of  that  vessel  put  his  passengers  unceremoni- 
ously ashore  at  Nantasket ;  but  they  presently  estab- 
lished themselves  at  Matapan,  which  they  called  Dor- 
Chester,  after-the  city  whence  they  came. 

A  third  party,  headed  by  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall, 
fixed  themselves  at  Watertown,  a  few  miles  up  Charles 
River.  These  three  were  the  principal  settlements. 
Smaller  ones  were  established  at  Roxbury,  under  Pyn- 
chon ;  at  Mystic,  afterward  called  Medford,  where  Cra- 
dock's  servants,  sent  out  with  Endicott,  already  had  a 
ship-building  establishment ;  and  at  Saugus,  now  Lynn. 
Some  settlers,  also,  still  remained  at  Charlestown.  A  site 
on  Charles  River,  between  Boston  and  Watertown,  se- 


186  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 


CHAPTER  lected  for  the  capital  of  the  colony,  soon  Became  known 
'  as  Newtown,  now  Cambridge.  The  magistrates  were 
all  to  remove  and  settle  there  in  the  spring  ;  but  this  was 
not  done,  except  by  Dudley ;  and  Boston,  in  fact,  be- 
came the  capital. 

Each  settlement  at  once  assumed  that  township  au- 
thority which  has  ever  formed  so  marked  a  feature  in 
the  political  organization  of  New  England.  The  people 
assembled  in  town  meeting,  voted  taxes  for  local  pur- 
poses, and  chose  three,  five,  or  seven  of  the  principal  in- 
habitants, at  first  under  other  names,  but  early  known 
as  "  select-men,"  who  had  the  expenditure  of  this  money 
and  the  executive  management  of  town  affairs.  A  treas- 
urer and  a  town  clerk  were  also  chosen,  and  a  constable 
was  soon  added  for  the  service  of  civil  and  criminal  pro- 
cess. Each  town  constituted,  in  fact,  a  little  republic, 
almost  complete  in  itself. 

The  first  and  second  Courts  of  Assistants  were  holden 
at  Charlestown  ;  the  first  General  Court  met  at  Boston, 
Oct.  19.  soon  after  Winthrop's  removal  thither.  The  transfer  of 
the  company  to  New  England,  though  not  prohibited  by 
the  charter,  was  an  arrangement  that  instrument  never 
contemplated,  and  it  produced  a  total  change  in  the  po- 
litical condition  of  the  colony,  which,  from  being  subject 
to  a  distant  corporation,  now  became  self-governed.  But 
the  freemen,  whose  number  at  this  first  court  must  have 
been  but  small,  appear  on  this  occasion  rather  careless 
of  their  rights.  They  were  induced  to  confer  the  whole 
power  of  legislation  on  the  governor  and  assistants,  fa- 
miliarly known  as  the  magistrates,  who  were  also  au- 
thorized to  elect  the  governor  and  deputy  governor  out 
of  their  own  body.  The  sole  power  left  to  the  freemen 
was  that  of  filling  such  vacancies  as  might  occur  by 
death  or  otherwise  in  the  Board  of  Assistants. 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       J  Q  7 

Notwithstanding  the  dutiful  and  tender  apostrophe  CHAPTER 
addressed  by  the  departing  leaders  to  their  "  dear  mother,"  ' 
the  Church,  of  England,  no  sooner  had  they  set  foot  in  1630. 
America  than  distance,  and  the  sense  of  freedom,  in- 
spired new  sentiments,  or,  at  least,  fresh  courage.  Fol- 
lowing up  the  system  which  Endicott  had  commenced, 
the  plantations  at  Charlestown,  Dorchester,  and  Wat- 
ertown  constituted  themselves,  after  the  examples  of 
Plymouth  and  Salem,  distinct  churches,  which  admitted 
their  own  members  and  chose  their  own  officers.  The 
minister  of  the  Charlestown  church  was  Wilson ;  but 
he  and  the  church  itself  were  soon  transferred  to  Boston. 
Wilson  was  believed  to  possess  a  sort  of  prophetic  power 
of  foretelling  future  events.  Phillips  was  minister  at 
Watertown,  and  Maverick  and  Warham  at  Dorchester. 
In  organizing  these  churches,  the  charge  of  open  separa^ 
tion  was  still  evaded.  The  simple  ceremonies  employed 
in  the  induction  of  the  ministers  were  represented  not  as 
a  new  ordination  repudiating  and  superseding  that  which 
the  ministers  had  received  from  their  bishops  in  England, 
but  as  mere  marks  of  their  election  and  installation. 

Military  defense  was  not  neglected.  Patrick  and  Un- 
derbill, two  officers  who  had  seen  service  in  the  Nether- 
lands, were  appointed  captains,  and  received  salaries  for 
training  the  people,  weekly,  in  the  use  of  arms. 

While  thus  founding  their  church  and  state  in  the 
wilderness,  these  new  settlers  encountered  some  of  the 
hardships  to  which  all  such  enterprises  are  necessarily 
exposed.  The  long  and  boisterous  passage  had  caused 
the  loss  of  many  cattle.  Many  of  the  new  comers  had 
landed  in  a  debilitated  state.  They  found  the  emigrants 
of  the  preceding  year  sick,  and  short  of  provisions.  As 
an  inducement  to  shift  for  themselves,  it  was  judged  best 
at  once  to  give  liberty  to  some  two  hundred  indented 


188  HISTORY  OF   T-HE.  UNITED -STATES. 

CHAPTER  servants  of  the  company.     The  colony  surgeon  was  one 
of  the  first  victims  of  disease.     Notwithstanding  the  as- 

1630.  sistance  of  Fuller,  a  practitioner  from  Plymouth,  who 
professed  some  knowledge  of  the  disorders  of  the  climate, 
more  than  two  hundred  dieft  before  December ;  among 
the  rest,  Isaac  Johnson,  a  principal  leader  in  the  enter- 
prise, and  his  wife,  the  Lady  Arbella ;  also  Higginson, 
the  pastor  of  the  Salem  church.     A  short  experience  of 
discomforts  and  privations  sufficed  with  many  of  the 
immigrants  to  dissipate  the  visions  which  had  seduced 
them  across  the  Atlantic,  and  more  than  a  hundred,  in- 
cluding some  who  had  been  very  zealous,  returned  home 
by  the  same  ships  in  which  they  came.     Among  these 
returning  passengers  were  William  Vassall,  one  of  the 
assistants,  and  Bright,  one  of  the  ministers,  neither  of 
whom  seem  to  have  been  quite  satisfied  with  the  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  polity  which  the  immigrants  were  de- 
termined to  adopt.     Vassall,  however,  presently  came 
back,  and  settled  in  Plymouth  colony. 

1631.  A  winter  followed  cold  beyond  any  English  experi- 
ence.     Many  of  the  "  poorer  sort,"  badly  sheltered  in 
booths  and  tents,  and  insufficiently  clothed  and  fed,  suf- 
fered severely.     Before  the  winter  was  over,  the  infant 
colony  was  threatened  with  famine ;  but  the  seasonable 
return  of  a  vessel  which  had  been  dispatched  to  England 
for  provisions  raised  the  spirits  of  the  colonists,  and  the 

Feb.  fast  that  had  been  ordered  was  changed  for  a  thanks- 
giving. A  few  additional  emigrants  came  in  this  ves- 
sel ;  among  others,  Eoger  Williams,  a  young  minister, 
destined  to  play  a  conspicuous  part.  When  she  return- 
ed, Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  with  a  portion  of  his  family, 
embarked  in  her.  He  never  came  back  again ;  but  his 
two  sons  remained  in  the  colony,  and  he  still  continued 
to  be  interested  in  it,  though  not  altogether  satisfied  with 


SETTLEMENT.^  NEW  ENGLAND.       Jgg 

the  strict  regimen  which  the  colonists  adopted.  "  If  any  CHAPTER 
qome  hither  to  plant  for  worldly  ends,  that  can  well  stay  ' 
at  home,"  wrote  Dudley,  by  the  same  opportunity,  to  1631. 
the  Countess  of  Lincoln,  "  he  commits  an  error  of  which 
he  will  soon  repent  him  ;  but  if  for  spiritual,  he  will  find 
here  what  may  well  content  him,  materials  to  build,  fuel 
to  burn,  ground  to  plant,  seas  and  rivers  to  fish  in,  a 
pure  air  to  breathe  in,  good  water  to  drink  till  wine  or 
beer  can  be  made,  which,  with  the  cows,  hogs,  and  goats 
brought  hither  already,  may  suffice  for  food.  For  clothes 
and  bedding,  they  must  bring  them  with  them,  till  time 
and  industry  produce  them  here.  In  a  word,  we  yet 
enjoy  little  to  be  envied,  but  endure  much  to  be  pitied 
in  the  sickness  and  mortality  of  our  people.  If  any 
godly  men,  out  of  religious  ends,  will  come  over  to  help 
us  in  the  good  work  we  are  about,  I  think  they  can  not 
dispose  of  themselves  or  their  estates  more  to  God's  glory 
and  the  furtherance  of  their  own  reckoning.  But  they 
must  not  be  of  the  poorer  sort  yet  for  diverse  years ;  and 
for  profane  and  debauched  persons,  their  oversight  in  com- 
ing here  is  wondered  at,  where  they  shall  find  nothing  to 
content  them." 

At  the  second  General  Court,  a  hundred  and  seven-  May  18. 
teen  new  freemen  were  admitted,  including  several  old 
planters.  Thus  re-enforced,  the  freemen  showed  some 
jealousy  of  the  close  oligarchy  to  which  the  preceding 
court  had  intrusted  the  government  of  the  colony.  They 
claimed  the  right  of  annually  nominating  new  assistants, 
and  of  passing  upon  those  in  office,  reduced  already  by 
deaths  and  departures  to  seven  in  number. 

But  this  court  is  principally  remarkable  for  the  adop- 
tion of  that  theocratic  basis  on  which,  for  the  next  half 
century,  the  government  of  Massachusetts  continued  to 
rest.  No  man  was  hereafter  to  be  admitted  a  freeman — 


190  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  that  is,  a  citizen  and  a  voter — unless  he  were  a  member 

VII. 

-  of  some  one  of  the  colony  churches ;  and  admission  to 
1631  those  churches  was  by  no  means  an  easy  matter.  Not 
a  fourth  part  of  the  adult  population  were  ever  members. 
To  an  orthodox  confession  of  faith,  and  lives  conformable 
to  Puritan  decorum,  candidates  for  church  membership 
were  required  to  add  a  satisfactory  religious  experience, 
to  be  recited  in  the  face  of  the  congregation,  of  which  the 
substantial  part  was  an  internal  assurance  of  change  of 
heart  and  a  lively  sentiment  of  justification  as  one  of 
God's  elect.  As  respected  equality  among  themselves, 
these  church  members  were  strongly  imbued  with  a  dem- 
ocratic spirit,  and  were  very  jealous  of  any  approach  to 
hierarchical  or  even  to  Presbyterian  forms.  But  toward 
those  not  of  the  church  they  exhibited  all  the  arrogance 
of  a  spiritual  aristocracy,  claiming  to  rule  by  divine  right. 
A  Church,  in  the  Massachusetts  sense,  was  defined  to 
be  "  a  body  of  believers  associated  together  for  mutual 
watchfulness  and  edification."  There  were  regularly 
two  ministers  to  each  church — a  teacher  "  to  minister  a 
word  of  knowledge,"  and  a  pastor  "  to  minister  a  word 
of  wisdom  ;"  but  this  distinction,  which  appears  never  to 
have  been  very  precise,  soon  disappeared,  and  most  of 
the  churches  came  by  degrees  to  be  content  with  support- 
ing one  minister.  The  ministers  were  commonly  desig- 
nated as  "  the  elders,"  or  sometimes  "  teaching  elders," 
to  distinguish  them  from  the  ruling  elders,  who  held  the 
third  rank  in  the  church.  These  ruling  elders  were  se- 
lected from  among  the  laymen,  "  ancient,  experienced, 
godly  Christians,  of  lion-like  courage  when  the  sound 
and  wholesome  doctrines  delivered  by  pastor  or  teacher 
are  spoken  against  by  any."  There  were  also  deacons, 
"plain-dealing  men,  endued  with  wisdom  from  above,  to 
manage  the  church  treasury." 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       ;[  g  ^ 

The  churches  were  nominally  independent,  yet  no  siiir  CHAPTER 

gle  church  could   venture,  any  more  than   any  single 

church  member,  upon  any  novelties  of  doctrine  or  disci-  1631. 
pline,  nor  appoint  nor  retain  officers  not  approved  by  the 
other  churches.     This  was  soon  made  apparent  when  the 
Salem  church  wished  to  settle  Roger  Williams  as  Hig- 
ginson's  successor.     That  ardent  and  vehement  young 
minister,  a  decided  separatist,  did  not  hesitate  to  stig- 
matize the  Church  of  England  as  anti-Christ ;   a  piece 
of  boldness  which  did  not  correspond  with  the  temporiz- 
ing policy  as  yet  adopted  in  Massachusetts.     Accord- 
ingly, the  magistrates  interfered,  and  Williams  retired  to 
Plymouth,  where  he  remained  for  two  years,   "  being 
freely  entertained  there,  and  his  teaching  well  approved." 
According  to  the  system  established  in  Massachusetts, 
the  church  and  state  were  most  intimately  blended.    The 
magistrates  and  General  Court,  aided  by  the  advice  of 
the  elders,  claimed  and  exercised  a  supreme  control  in 
spiritual  as  well  as  temporal  matters ;    while,  even  in 
matters  purely  temporal,  the  elders  were  consulted  on 
all   important  questions.      The   support   of  the   elders, 
the  first  thing  considered  in  the  first  Court  of  Assist- 
ants held  in  Massachusetts,  had  been  secured  by  a  vote 
to  build  houses  for  them,  and  to  provide 'them  a  main- 
tenance at  the  public  expense.      This  burden,  indeed, 
was  spontaneously  assumed  by  such  of  the  plantations 
as  had  ministers.     In  some  towns  a  tax  was   levied; 
in  others,  a  contribution  was  taken  up  every  Sunday, 
called  voluntary,  but  hardly  so  in  fact,  since  every  per- 
son was  expected  to  contribute  according  to  his  means* 
This  method  of  contribution,  in  use  at  Plymouth,  was 
adopted  also  at  Boston  ;  but,  in  most  of  the  other  towns, 
the  taxing  system  obtained  preference,  and  subsequently 
was  established  by  law.     Besides  the  Sunday  services, 


192  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  protracted  to  a  great  length,  there  were  frequent  lectures 

on  week  days,  an  excess  of  devotion  unseasonable  in  an 

1631.  infant  colony,  and  threatening  the  interruption  of  neces- 
sary labor ;  so  much  so,  that  the  magistrates  presently 
found  themselves  obliged  to  interfere  by  restricting  them 
to  one  a  week  in  each  town.  These  lectures,  which 
people  went  from  town  to  town  to  attend;  an  annual 
fast  in  the  spring,  corresponding  to  Lent,  and  a  thanks- 
giving at  the  end  of  autumn  to  supersede  Christmas, 
stood  in  place  of  all  the  holidays  of  the  papal  and  En- 
glish churches,  which  the  colonists  soon  came  to  regard 
as  no  better  than  idolatrous,  and  any  disposition  to  ob- 
serve them — even  the  eating  of  mince  pies  on  Christ- 
mas day — as  superstitious  and  wicked.  In  contempt 
of  the  usage  of  those  churches,  marriage  was  declared 
no  sacrament,  but  a  mere  civil  contract,  to  be  sanc- 
tioned, not  by  a  minister,  but  a  magistrate.  The  mag- 
istrates,, also,  early  assumed  the  power  of  granting  di- 
vorces, not  for  adultery  only,  but  in  such  other  cases  as 
they  saw  fit.  Baptism,  instead  of  being  dispensed  to  all, 
as  in  the  churches  of  Rome  and  England,  was  limited 
as  a  special  privilege  to  church  members  and  their  "  in- 
fant seed."  Participation  in  the  sacrament  of  the  Sup- 
per was  guarded  with  still  greater  jealousy,  none  but 
full  church  members  being  allowed  to  partake  of  it. 

Besides  these  religious  distinctions,  there  were  others 
of  a  temporal  character,  transferred  from  that  system  of 
semi-feudal  English  society  in  which  the  colonists  had 
been  born  and  bred.  A  discrimination  between  "  gen- 
tlemen" and  those  of  inferior  condition  was  carefully 
kept  up.  Only  gentlemen  were  entitled  to  the  prefix 
of  "  Mr. ;"  their  number  was  quite  small,  and  depriva- 
tion of  the  right  to  be  so  addressed  was  inflicted  as  a 
punishment.  "  Good  man"  or  "  good  woman,"  by  con- 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       ^93 

traction,  "  goody,"  was  the  address  of  inferior  persons.  CHAPTER 

Besides  the  indented  servants  sent  out  by  the  company, '___ 

the  wealthier  colonists  brought  others  with  them.      But  163L. 
these  servants  seem,  in  general,  to  have  had  little  sym- 
pathy with  the  austere  manners  and  opinions   of  their 
masters,  and  their  frequent  transgressions  of  Puritan  de- 
corum gave  the  magistrates  no  Jittle  trouble. 

The  system  of  manners  which  the  founders  of  Massa- 
chusetts labored  to  establish  and  maintain  was  indeed 
exceedingly  rigorous  and  austere.  All  amusements  were 
proscribed ;  all  gayety  seemed  to  be  regarded  as  a  sin. 
It  was  attempted  to  make  the  colony,  as  it  were,  a  con- 
vent of  Puritan  devotees — except  in  the  allowance  of 
marriage  and  money-making — subjected  to  all  the  rules 
of  the  stricter  monastic  orders. 

Morton,  of  Merry  Mount,  who  had  returned  again  to 
New  England,  was  seized  and  sent  back,  his  goods  con- 
fiscated, and  his  house  burned,  as  the  magistrate  alleged, 
to  satisfy  the  Indians  ;  but  this,  according  to  Morton,  was 
a  mere  pretext.  A  similar  fate  happened  to  Sir  Chris- 
topher Gardiner,  a  knight,  or  pretended  knight,  of  the 
Holy  Sepulcher,  an  ambiguous  character,  attended  by  a 
young  damsel  and  two  or  three  servants.  Suspected  as 
the  agent  of  some  persons  who  claimed  a  prior  right  to 
some  parts  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  he  was  charged  with 
having  two  wives  in  England,  and  with  being  a  secret 
papist.  He  fled  to  the  woods,  but  was  delivered  up  by 
the  Indians,  and  sent  home,  as  were  several  others  whom 
the  magistrates  pronounced  "  unfit  to  inhabit  there." 
"Walford,  the  smith,  the  old  settler  at  Charlestown,  ban- 
ished for  "  contempt  of  authority,"  retired  to  Piscataqua, 
which  soon  became  a  common  asylum  of  refugees  from 
Massachusetts.  The  sociable  and  jolly  disposition  of  Mav- 
erick, described  by  Josselyn,  an  early  traveler,  as  "the 
I.  N 


194  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  only  hospitable  man  in  the  colony,"  gave  the  magistrates 

abundance  of  trouble,  and  subjected  Maverick  himself  to 

1(531.  frequent  fines  and  admonitions.  Others,  who  slandered 
the  government  or  churches,  or  wrote  home  discouraging 
letters,  were  whipped,  cropped  of  their  ears,  and  banished. 
These  harsh  proceedings  produced  in  England  an  ef- 
fect not  very  favorable  to  the  colony.  Many  discoura- 
ging stories  were  also  told  by  those  faint-hearted  persons 
who  went  back  voluntarily.  In  the  year  following  the 
great  migration,  only  ninety  new  comers  arrived  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, chiefly  the  families  of  those  already  there  ; 
among  them,  John  Winthrop  the  younger,  eldest  son  of 
the  governor,  and  hardly  less  distinguished  than  his  fa- 
ther in  the  annals  of  New  England ;  also  John  Eliot,  a 
young  minister,  afterward  famous  as  the  apostle  of  the 
Indians. 

The  Brownes,  so  summarily  sent  home  by  Endicott, 
had  preferred  against  the  company  a  claim  for  damages, 
which  had  been  referred  to  arbitrators,  but  remained  un- 
1632.  settled.  They  presently  joined  with  Morton  and  others 
in  a  petition  to  the  Privy  Council ;  nor  was  it  without 
difficulty,  and  by  dwelling  with  peculiar  emphasis  on  the 
benefits  to  trade  and  the  fisheries  likely  to  result  from 
this  new  settlement,  that  the  members  of  the  company 
resident  in  England  succeeded  in  parrying  these  com- 
plaints. Arguments  of  this  sort  carried  the  more  weight, 
from  the  strong  interest  the  king's  government  had  in 
sustaining  whatever  tended  to  increase  the  royal  customs, 
especially  now  that  it  had  been  resolved  to  call  no  more 
Parliaments.  The  infant  colony  had  found  an  unexpect- 
ed champion  in  the  veteran  John  Smith,  who  published, 
1630.  just  before  his  death,  a  favorable  description  of  New  En- 
gland,  with  a  vindication  of  the  colonists  from  those 
charges  of  schism  which  already,  at  the  moment  of  their 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

departure,  were  freely  urged  against  them ;   charges  to  CHAPTER 
which  Morton  gave  a  new  impulse  by  the  publication  of          ' 
his  «  New  English  Canaan."  1632. 

In  virtue  of  the  extensive  authority  conferred  upon  them 
at  the  first  General  Court,  the  magistrates  had  exercised 
on  several  occasions  the  power  of  levying  taxes.  They 
voted  in  these  cases  a  gross  sum,  apportioned  to  the  towns 
according  to  their  estimated  ability,  leaving  each  town  to 
assess  and  collect  its  separate  proportion — the  same  meth- 
od still  followed  in  New  England.  Two  such  rates,  one 
for  a  creek  or  canal  from  Charles  River  to  Newtown. 
which  it  was  still  proposed  to  make  the  capital  of  the 
colony,  the  other  for  fortifying  that  town  by  a  palisade, 
had  occasioned  some  opposition.  The  people  of  Water- 
town  resolved  "  that  it  was  not  safe  to  pay  moneys  after 
that  sort,  for  fear  of  bringing  themselves  and  their  pos- 
terity into  bondage."  For  this  resistance  to  authority,  Feb. 
they  were  had  up  before  the  magistrates,  and  were  oblig- 
ed to  retract ;  but  the  next  General  Court  took  the  mat-  May  9. 
ter  in  hand,  and  an  order  was  made  for  two  deputies  to 
be  chosen  from  each  plantation,  to  confer  with  the  mag- 
istrates "  about  raising  a  common  stock."  The  tenure 
of  office,  on  the  part  of  the  assistants,  was  expressly  lim- 
ited by  this  court  to  one  year.  The  choice  of  governor 
and  deputy  governor  was  also  reassumed  by  the  freemen, 
but  it  was  agreed  that  they  should  always  be  chosen  from 
among  the  magistrates.  In  the  exercise  of  the  rights 
thus  vindicated,  the  freemen  were  very  moderate.  There 
was  little  of  change  or  rotation  in  the  board  of  magistrates ; 
persons  once  chosen  to  it  were  never  left  out  but  for  some 
extraordinary  cause.  The  seats  at  that  board,  which, 
notwithstanding  the  charter  number  of  eighteen,  never 
exceeded  eight  or  ten,  were  held  by  a  few  leading  per- 
sons, conspicuous  for  wealth  and  godliness,  who  remain- 


196  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  ed  substantially  magistrates  for  life,  with  the  important 
_______  check,  however,  that  they  might  at  any  time  be  left  out 

1632.  by  the  freemen.     The  proposed  capital  at  Newtown  was 
presently  abandoned;  Boston  was  agreed  to  be  the  "  fit- 
test place  for  public  meetings  of  any  in  the  bay,"  and  a 
fort  and  house  of  correction  were  ordered  to  be  built  there. 

1633.  The  next  year,  the  fourth  since  the  great  migration, 
several   hundred   settlers    arrived ;    among   them,   John 
Haynes,  "a  gentleman  of  great  estate,"  and  those  godly 
ministers,  Cotton,  Hooker,  and  Stone.      Cotton  became 
colleague  with  Wilson  over  the  Boston  church.     Hooker 
and   Stone   settled   at  Newtown,  where   a   church  was 
presently  constituted,  over  which  they  were  placed.      A 
new  church  had  been  gathered  at  Chaiiestown,  and  an- 
other at  Roxbury,  of  which  Eliot  became  teacher,  and 
Welde  pastor. 

This  influx  of  immigrants  caused  an  increased  de- 
mand for  labor,  and  led  the  magistrates  to  renew  an  ex- 
periment they  had  once  tried  already  of  regulating  the 
rate  of  wages.  Carpenters,  masons,  and  other  mechan- 
ics were  to  have  two  shillings — forty-eight  cents — per 
day,  and  find  their  own  diet ;  ordinary  workmen  one 
and  sixpence,  or  thirty-two  cents.  The  workmen,  thus 
restricted,  raised  an  outcry  at  the  excessive  cost  of  im- 
ported goods  ;  and  the  magistrates,  at  their  next  session, 
limited  prices  at  an  advance  of  one  third  on  the  cost  of 
importation.  Corn  at  this  time  was  six  shillings — near  a 
dollar  and  a  half — per  bushel,  at  which  rate  it  was  a  tender 
in  payment  of  debts ;  but  it  soon  sunk  to  three  or  four 
shillings.  These  attempts  to  regulate  wages,  though 
not  very  successful,  were  long  persevered  in ;  but  it 
was  presently  left  to  the  towns  to  fix  the  rates.  The 
traders  were  less  manageable  than  the  laborers,  and  the 
attempt  to  limit  the  price  of  goods  was  early  abandoned. 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


197 


As  a  terror  to  idlers,  the  constables,  by  another  enact-  CHAPTER 

VII. 

ment  of  this  court,  were  ordered  to  present  all  "common       > 
coasters,  unprofitable  fowlers  and  tobacco-takers"— one  1633, 
of  many  ineffectual  attempts  to  restrain  the  use  of  to- 
bacco.     Equally  vain  were  the  endeavors  of  subsequent 
courts  to  limit  the  excessive  use  of  other  luxuries  in  food 
and  apparel.      Disappointed  in  the  success  of  its  legisla- 
tion on  these  points,  the  court  appealed  to  the  elders  for 
aid.      Little,   however,  was  done   about  it,   "  divers  of 
the  elders'  wives,"  as  Winthrop  informs  us,  "  being  in 
some  measure  partners  in  this  disorder." 

By  order  of  court,  a  market  was  set  up  at  Boston,  to  1634. 
be  kept  on  Thursday,  the  weekly  lecture-day  for  that   March, 
town.      Samuel  Cole  set  up  the  first  house  of  common 
entertainment,  and  John  Cogan,  merchant,  the  first  shop. 
The  narrow  limits  of  the  peninsula  no  longer  sufficed  for 
this  growing  capital.     The  inhabitants  already  had  farms 
in  what  is  now  Brookline,  and  a  year  afterward  they 
"  had  enlargement"   at  Rumney  Marsh,   now  Chelsea, 
and  also  at  Mount  Wollaston.      But  this  latter  planta- 
tion was  soon  made  a  separate  town,  and  called  Braintree. 

The  small-pox  having  broken  out  among  the  Indians 
of  New  England,  it  spread  from  tribe  to  tribe,  and  com- 
mitted great  ravages.  The  petty  tribes  in  the  immedi- 
ate vicinity  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  the  small  remains 
left  by  former  pestilences,  were  now  almost  exterminated 
by  it. 

Much  trouble  had  been  experienced  from  the  tres- 
passes of  swine  on  cultivated  grounds.  After  several  in- 
effectual regulations  made  by  the  magistrates,  a  new 
and  harsher  one,  which  authorized  the  killing  of  tres- 
passing animals,  occasioned  a  ferment,  which  led  to  an 
important  constitutional  change.  Two  delegates  chosen  April 
by  each  town  met,  and  requested  a  sight  of  the  charter ; 


198  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  upon  an  examination  of  which,  they  concluded  that  the 
'      legislative  authority  rested  not  with  the  magistrates,  but 

1634.  with  the  freemen.  On  that  point  they  asked  the  gov- 
ernor's opinion,  who  replied,  that  when  the  patent  was 
granted,  it  was  supposed  the  freemen  would  be  so  few, 
as  in  other  like  corporations,  that  all  might  well  join  in 
making  laws ;  but  now  they  were  grown  so  great  a 
body,  that  was  impossible,  and  they  must  choose  others 
for  that  purpose.  Yet  the  whole  number  of  freemen 
admitted  since  the  transfer  of  the  charter,  including 
those  made  at  the  next  court,  was  but  a  few  more  than 
three  hundred,  and  the  "  great  body"  which  the  gov- 
ernor esteemed  too  unwieldy  for  legislation  did  not  ex- 
ceed the  present  ordinary  number  of  the  Massachusetts 
Legislature.  In  the  governor's  opinion,  "  the  commons" 
were  not  yet  furnished  with  a  body  of  men  adequate  to 
the  duties  of  legislation ;  he  proposed,  however,  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  certain  number  yearly,  not  to  make  laws, 
but  to  prefer  grievances  to  the  Court  of  Assistants, 
whose  consent  might  also  be  required  to  all  assessments 
of  money  and  grants  of  lands. 

The  freemen  were  not  to  be  satisfied  with  any  such 

May  H.  restricted  power ;  and  when  the  General  Court  met, 
that  body  claimed  for  itself,  under  the  charter,  the 'ad- 
mission of  freemen,  the  choosing  of  all  principal  officers, 
the  making  of  laws,  granting  lands,  raising  money,  and 
the  revision,  by  way  of  appeal,  of  all  civil  and  criminal 
procedures.  By  the  terms  of  the  charter,  four  General 
Courts  were  to  be  held  in  a  year.  It  was  arranged, 
however,  that  while  all  the  freemen  assembled  annually 
for  the  choice  of  officers,  they  should  be  represented  in 
the  other  three  courts  by  a  body  of  delegates  elected  by 
the  towns,  "  to  deal  on  their  behalf  in  the  public  affairs 
of  the  Commonwealth,"  and  for  that  purpose  "  to  have 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW   ENGLAND.  1QQ 

derived  to  them  the  full  voice  and  power  of  all  the  said  CHAPTER 

VII. 

freemen."  , 

This  political  revolution  was  naturally  followed  by  a  1634. 
change  in  the  head  of  the  government,  though  some  ef- 
fort was  made  to  prevent  it.  Previous  to  the  ejection  a 
sermon  was  preached  to  the  assembled  freemen,  a  usage 
still  perpetuated  in  the  annual  sermon  before  the  Gener- 
al Court  of  Massachusetts.  Cotton,  the  new  minister 
of  Boston,  delivered  on  that  occasion  this  doctrine,  that 
a  magistrate  ought  not  to  be  turned  into  the  condition 
of  a  private  man  without  just  cause,  and  a  public  trial 
on  specific  charges,  "  no  more  than  the  magistrates  may 
not  turn  a  private  man  out  of  his  freehold  without  like 
public  trial."  This  sermon,  however,  did  not  prevent 
the  freemen  from  electing  Deputy-governor  Dudley  into 
Winthrop's  place.  A  jealousy  between  these  two  rival 
chiefs,  which  had  already  displayed  itself  on  several  oc- 
casions, recommended  Dudley  as  the  successor  of  Win- 
throp,  though  he  was  not  a  whit  more  moderate  in  his 
notions  of  magisterial  authority,  and  was  naturally  of  a 
much  harsher  and  more  exacting  disposition.  Dudley's 
place  as  deputy  was  filled  by  Ludlow. 

Yet  Cotton's  sermon  was  not  entirely  thrown  away. 
"Winthrop  was  still  retained  as  an  assistant,  as  were  all 
his  colleagues.  Some  of  them  "  were  questioned  for 
some  errors  in  their  government,"  and  some  fines  were 
imposed  ;  but  these  were  remitted  before  the  court  broke 
up.  The  ex-governor  was  a  good  deal  mortified  at  being 
called  upon  for  a  statement  of  his  accounts,  which  he 
seemed  to  regard,  very  unnecessarily,  as  a  reflection  on 
his  integrity.  This  statement,  promptly  rendered  and 
placed  upon  record  at  the  ex-governor's  request,  showed 
Winthrop  to  have  been  a  considerable  loser  by  his  office. 
During  the  continuance  of  the  first  charter,  the  station 


200  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  of  governor  was  rather  one  of  honor  than  of  profit,  the 
_____  compensation  voted  from  time  to  time  never  exceeding 
1634.  three  or  four  hundred  dollars  annually. 

Under  Winthrop's  four  years'  administration  the  infant 
colony  jiad  been  firmly  planted.  Already  there  were 
seven  churches,  and  eight  principal  plantations,  besides 
several  smaller  ones.  Ferries  had  been  established  be- 
tween Boston,  Charlestown,  and  Winnissimet ;  a  fort  had 
been  built  at  Boston  ;  water-mills  had  been  set  up  at 
Roxbury  and  Dorchester,  and  wind-mills  at  other  places. 
A  bark  of  thirty  tons,  called  the  "  Blessing  of  the  Bay," 
had  been  built  and  rigged  at  Winthrop's  expense,  and 
another,  the  "  Rebecca,"  of  sixty  tons,  at  Medford,  where 
Cradock  had  a  ship-yard — a  branch  of  business  carried 
on  there  from  that  day  to  this.  A  trade  in  corn  and 
cattle  had  commenced  with  Virginia,  and  an  exchange 
of  furs  for  West  India  goods  with  the  Dutch  at  Manhat- 
tan. This  steadiness  and  perseverance  soon  made  itself 
felt.  The  New  England  churches,  unshackled  by  tra- 
ditionary institutions,  and  constructed,  it  was  thought, 
on  the  pure  Bible  model,  became  the  admiration  and  envy 
of  the  English  Puritans  ;  and,  the  first  difficulties  of  the 
enterprise  overcome,  the  tide  of  immigration  was  already 
pouring  into  Massachusetts  Bay. 

The  eastern  coasts,  meanwhile,  had  not  been  wholly 
neglected.  Mason  and  Gorges  had  made  a  partition  of 
1629.  their  province  of  Laconia,  and  Mason  had  obtained,  hi 
his  own  name,  a  new  and  separate  grant  for  that  portion 
of  it  between  the  Merrimac  and  the  Piscataqua,  extend- 
ing sixty  miles  into  the  interior.  This  new  province 
was  called  NEW  HAMPSHIRE,  after  the  English  county  in 
which  Mason  lived.  For  the  advancement  of  the  settle- 
ments on  the  Piscataqua,  two  companies  had  been  formed, 
to  which  separate  grants  from  the  Council  for  New  En- 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       201 

gland  were  presently  issued.    The  company  for  the  upper  CHAPTER 

plantation,  or  Dover,  was  composed  of  west-of-England 

merchants  ;  that  for  the  lower  plantation,  or  Portsmouth,  1630. 
of  London  merchants,  with  whom  Mason  and  Gorges 
were  partners.  The  same  summer  with  the  great  emi- 
gration to  Massachusetts  Bay,  Walter  Neal  was  sent  out 
as  governor  of  the  lower  plantation.  In  search  of  the 
great  lakes  of  Canada,  of  which  some  rumor  had  beeit 
heard  from  the  Indians,  he  penetrated  inland  almost  to 
Lake  Winnipiseogee,  but  failed  to  open  that  lucrative 
fur  trade  which  his  employers  had  hoped.  Mason  and 
Gorges  soon  bought  out  the  other  partners,  and  became 
the  sole  proprietors  of  Portsmouth.  The  adventurers 
for  the  upper  settlement,  or  most  of  them,  sold  out  not 
long  after  to  the  Lords  Say  and  Brooke,  two  Puritan  no- 
blemen much  engaged  in  plantation  projects. 

The  coast  from  the  Piscataqua  to  the  Kennebec  was  1629— 
covered  by  six  other  patents,  issued  in  the  course  of  three  1631. 
years  by  the  Council  for  New  England,  with  the  consent, 
doubtless,  of  Gorges,  who  was  anxious  to  interest  as  many 
persons  as  possible  in  the  projects  of  colonization,  to  which 
he  was  himself  so  much  devoted.  Several  of  these  grants 
were  for  small  tracts ;  the  most  important  embraced  an 
extent  of  forty  miles  square,  bordering  on  Casco  Bay,  and 
named  LIGONIA.  The  establishments  hitherto  attempted 
on  the  eastern  coast  had  been  principally  for  fishing  and 
fur  trading ;  this  was  to  be  an  agricultural  colony,  and 
became  familiarly  known  as  the  "  Plow  patent."  A 
company  was  formed,  and  some  settlers  were  sent  out;  1631, 
but  they  did  not  like  the  situation,  and  removed  to  Mas- 
sachusetts. Another  of  these  grants  was  the  Pemaquid 
patent,  a  narrow  tract  on  both  sides  of  Pemaquid  Point, 
where  already  were  some  settlers.  PEMAQUID  remained 
an  independent  community  for  the  next  forty  years. 


202  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER       The  region  granted  to  Sir  William  Alexander,  by  the 
'      name  of  Nova  Scotia,  but  which  the  French  claimed  also 

1627.  by  the  name  of  Acadie,  had  passed,  along  with  Canada, 
into  the  hands  of  a  joint-stock  association  of  French  mer- 
chants— The  Hundred  Associates,  or  Company  of  New 
France.     The  foolish  vanity  of  the  favorite  Buckingham 
having  brought  about  a  war  between  France  and  England, 
Sir  William  Alexander  availed  himself  of  the  opportunity 
to  take  forcible  possession  of  the  province.     He  joined  for 
that  purpose  with  Sir  David  Kirk,  or  Kertz,  an  adventur- 
ous refugee  Huguenot,  who  took  command  of  a  fleet  of 
nine  vessels,  fitted  out  at  their  joint  expense.     Having  in- 

1628.  tercepted  the  supplies  sent  out  by  the  Company  of  New 
France,  and  gained  possession  of  Port  Royal,  Kirk  pro- 
ceeded toward  Quebec,  where  Champlain  was  still  gov- 
ernor.     Informed,  however,  of  the  approach  of  some  other 
French  vessels,  sent  by  the  company  with  supplies,  he 
turned  about  to  meet  them.    The  squadrons  encountered 
off  the  Bay  of  Gaspe,  and  all  the  French  vessels  were 
taken.    The  next  year,  having  first  received  the  submis- 
sion of  some  French  settlers  on  the  Island  of  Cape  Bre- 
ton, Kirk  ascended  the  St.  Lawrence  a  second  time.    Cut 

1629.  off  from  all  communication  with  France,  and  in  distress 
for  provisions,   Quebec,   with  its   starving   inhabitants, 
about  a  hundred  in  number,  gladly  surrendered      But 
peace  was  already  made  in  Europe ;  and  under  the  treaty 
and  the  negotiations  that  followed  it,  not  Canada  only, 

1632.  but  Cape  Breton  and  Acadie,  passed  again  to  the  French. 
The  limits  of  Acadie  toward  the  west  were  wholly  un- 
settled. Razzillai,  appointed  governor  for  the  Company 
of  New  France,  had  a  grant  of  the  river  and  bay  of  St. 
Croix  ;  but  he  preferred  to  establish  himself  at  La  Have, 
on  the  exterior  coast  of  the  Acadien  peninsula.  The 
people  of  Ply  mouth,  encouraged  by  their  successful  In- 


SETTLEMENT    OF   NEW   ENGLAND.  203 

dian  trade  at  the  Kennebec,  had  established  a  trading-  CHAPTER 

VII. 

house  on  the  Penobscot,  and  another  still  further  east, 

at  Machias,  almost  at  the  entrance  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy.  1632. 
The  trading-house  at  the  Penobscot  was  soon  visited  and 
rifled  by  a  French  pinnace  ;  that  at  Machias  shared,  the 
next  year,  the  same  fate;  and  notice  was  given  by  the  1633. 
French  commanders  that  they  would  not  allow  English 
trade  or  settlement  any  where  eastward  of  Pemaquid 
Point,  a  promontory  about  half  way  from  the  Penobscot 
to  the  Kennebec.  The  French  were  not  only  rivals  in 
trade,  but,  what  was  worse,  they  were  papists,  and  the 
people  of  Massachusetts  feared  they  might  prove  but  "  ill 
neighbors." 

Their  commerce  thus  curtailed  toward  the  eastward, 
the  people  of  Plymouth,  notwithstanding  the  refusal  of 
Massachusetts  to  co-operate  with  them,  and  disregarding 
the  protests  and  threats  of  the  Dutch,  established  a  trad- 
ing post  on  Connecticut  River,  as  mentioned  in  a  previ-  Sept. 
ous  chapter.  Since  the  settlement  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
the  ancient  and  enterprising  colony  of  New  Plymouth 
had  received  considerable  accessions,  though  it  still  re- 
mained, as  it  always  did,  far  inferior  to  its  younger 
neighbor. 


204  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

SETTLEMENT  OF  MARYLAND.    PROGRESS  OF  VIRGINIA. 


CHAPTER  J.T  was  not  Puritan    nonconformists  alone  who  were 


I 

exposed  to  persecution  in  England.  The  Catholics,  at 
the  other  end  of  the  religious  scale,  in  numbers  and 
means  a  formidable  body,  including  many  of  the  ancient 
nobility,  were  watched  with  even  greater  jealousy,  and 
subjected  to  far  severer  penalties.  The  Catholics  con- 
stituted from  the  beginning  what  the  Puritans  came  to 
do  only  by  degrees,  not  a  religious  sect  merely,  but  a  po- 
litical party,  an  inevitable  consequence  of  the  supposed 
necessity,  in  those  times,  of  maintaining  a  unity  of  reli- 
gious faith.  It  was  not  toleration,  but  supremacy,  for 
which  Catholics  and  Puritans  alike  sought ;  while  the 
Church  of  England,  for  the  maintenance  of  her  own  su- 
premacy, struggled  equally  against  both.  As  against 
the  Catholics,  she  was  sustained,  and,  indeed,  constantly 
instigated  to  new  severities  by  the  Puritans,  who  looked 
upon  the  ancient  faith  and  its'  professors  with  mingled 
feelings  of  hatred  and  terror,  of  which  it  is  not  easy,  at 
this  time,  to  form  any  very  adequate  idea.  In  those 
feelings  the  great  mass  of  the  English  people  strongly 
sympathized.  The  terrible  times  of  "  Bloody  Mary," 
yet  fresh  in  the  public  recollection ;  the  famous  Spanish 
Armada,  fitted  out  for  the  express  purpose  of  carrying 
into  effect  the  pope's  sentence  of  excommunication  and 
deposition  against  Elizabeth  ;  the  repeated  outbreaks  of 
the  Catholic  nobles  during  her  time,  and,  still  more  re- 
cently, the  foolish  and  fanatical  gunpowder  plot ;  the 


SETTLEMENT   OF   MARYLAND.  205 

Catholic  reaction  which  had  been  going  on  for  many  CHAPTER* 

years  on  the  Continent  under  the  influence  of  the  Jesu- 

its,  resulting  at  last  in  a  war  which  threatened  the  Prot- 
estant princes  of  Germany  with  extinction ;  the  proba- 
bility that  the  English  Catholics  might  receive  aid  from 
the  Continent  to  re-establish  their  religion  by  force ; 
more  than  all,  the  evident  inclination  of  James  and 
Charles,  in  common  with  most  of  the  Protestant  sover- 
eigns of  that  age,  to  moderate  the  severity  of  the  penal 
laws  against  the  Catholics,  as  one  step  toward  some  sort 
of  arrangement  or  understanding  with  the  pope — all  these 
causes  combined  to  inflame  the  minds  of  the  Puritans,  and 
while  they  cried  out  against  the  exacting  tyranny  of  the 
bishops,  they  cried  out  not  less  loudly  for  the  strict  enforce- 
ment of  the  penal  laws  against  the  Catholics.  So  far 
as  persecution  was  concerned,  the  Catholics  had  even 
stronger  inducements  to  emigrate  than  the  Puritans. 

About  the  beginning  of  James's  reign,  George  Calvert,  1604 
a  gentleman  of  Yorkshire,  a  graduate  of  Oxford,  had  been 
appointed,  by  the  favor  of  Sir  Robert  Cecil,  to  a  subordi- 
nate office  in  the  state  department.  After  years  of  serv- 
ice, he  was  knighted,  and  made  clerk  of  the  Privy  Coun-  1619. 
oil ;  and,  finally,  he  rose  to  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State. 
Calvert  was  originally  a  secret  Catholic,  or  he  gradually 
became  one  ;  but,  so  long  as  he  remained  in  office,  it  was 
necessary  to  conceal  his  opinions.  A  member,  from  the 
beginning,  of  the  Virginia  Company,  he  was  early  inter- 
ested in  American  colonization.  Presently  he  resolved  to 
try  an  experiment  of  his  own,  and  for  that  purpose  ob- 
tained the  grant  of  Avalon,  on  the  southeast  coast  of  the 
island  of  Newfoundland,  where,  a  year  or  two  after  the  1622. 
settlement  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth,  he  began  a  lit- 
tle colony  called  Ferryland. 

With  the  rapid  growth  of  the  Puritan  party,  the  cry 


206  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  against  the  Catholics  became  louder  and  louder.      Cal- 

VIII 

vert,  presently  resigned  his  office,  and,  with  a  frankness 
which  must  be  taken  as  proof  of  his  sincerity,  he  avowed 
his  adherence  to  the  Catholic  faith.  But  this  avowal  did 

1625.  not  destroy  his  favor  at  court ;  for,  soon  after,  in  reward 
of  his  past  services,  he  was  created  an  Irish  peer,  with 
the  title  of  Lord  Baltimore.  Calvert  twice  visited  his 
colony  in  Newfoundland  ;  but  that  region,  cold  and  ster- 
ile, was  not  only  liable  to  the  opposing  claims  of  the 
French  and  Spanish,  whose  fishing  vessels,  for  a  century, 
had  frequented  that  coast,  but  there  was  even  danger  of 
collision  with  the  English  fishermen,  who  insisted  on  the 
free  use  of  all  the  shores  and  harbors,  and  regarded  with 
hostile  eyes  all  pretensions  to  exclusive  possession. 

Having  found  out,  by  inspection  and  residence,  the  dis- 
advantages of  his  Newfoundland  province,  Lord  Balti- 

1628.  more,  about  the  time  of  Endicott's  settlement  at  Salem, 
paid  a  visit  to  Virginia,  where,  however,  he  was  not  very 
hospitably  received.  Under  a  standing  law  of  the  colo- 
ny, the  Oath  of  Supremacy  was  tendered  to  him — an  oath 
purposely  so  contrived  that  no  conscientious  Catholic  could 
take  it.  Nor  did  he  even  escape  personal  insult.  The 
Protestant  feeling  was  evidently  too  strong  in  Virginia 
to  make  it  a  desirable  residence  for  Catholic  immigrants. 
But  there  was  a  large,  unoccupied  region  north  of  the 
Potomac,  and  Baltimore  easily  obtained  from  Charles  I. 
the  grant  of  a  province,  to  which,  in  honor  of  the  queen, 
Henrietta  Maria,  he  gave  the  name  of  MARYLAND. 

The  Potomac,  with  a  line  due  east  from  its  mouth, 
across  Chesapeake  Bay  and  the  peninsula  called  the  east- 
ern shore,  formed  the  southern  boundary  of  this  new  prov- 
ince ;  on  the  east  it  had  the  ocean  and  Delaware  Bay ; 
on  the  north,  the  fortieth  degree  of  latitude,  the  southern 
boundary  of  the  great  New  England  patent ;  and,  on 


SETTLEMENT   OF    MARYLAND.  207 

the  west,  a  line  due  north  from  the  westernmost  head  of  CHAPTER 

the  Potomac.     Before  the  patent  had  passed  all  the  nee- 

essary  formalities.  Lord  Baltimore  died;  but  the  charter  1632. 
was  issued,  in  the  terms  previously  agreed  upon,  to  his 
son  and  heir  Cecilius,  who  zealously  devoted  himself  to  July  20. 
carry  out  his  father's  plans.  This  charter,  carefully 
drawn  under  the  inspection  of  the  first  Lord  Baltimore, 
became  a  model,  in  most  respects,  fpr  all  American  char- 
ters subsequently  granted.  It  created  the  grantee  and 
his  heirs  "  true  and  absolute  lords  and  proprietors"  of  the 
province,  with  all  the  rights  of  a  separate,  though  subor- 
dinate jurisdiction,  appertaining,  under  the  English  law, 
to  a  County  Palatine.  The  proprietary  had  "  free,  full, 
and  absolute  power"  to  enact  all  necessary  laws,  not,  how- 
ever, without  "  the  advice,  consent,  and  approbation  of 
the  freemen  of  the  province,"  or  their  representatives  con- 
voked in  general  assembly — the  first  provision  in  any 
American  patent  for  securing  to  the  colonists  a  share  in 
legislation.  No  similar  clause  was  found  in  either  the 
Virginia,  the  New  England,  or  the  Massachusetts  charters. 
All  laws  thus  to  be  made  must,  however,  be  "  consonant 
to  reason,  and  not  repugnant  or  contrary,  but,  so  far  as 
conveniently  might  be,  consonant  to  the  laws  of  England" 
— an  important  restriction  upon  local  legislation,  imposed 
alike  upon  all  tfce  colonies.  Of  his  own  mere  authority 
the  proprietary  might  establish  "  fit  and  wholesome  or- 
dinances," provided  they  conformed  to  English  law,  and 
did  not  extend  to  life  or  member,  nor  affect  any  interest 
in  freehold,  goods,  or  chattels — a  limitation  which  restrict- 
ed this  power  within  very  narrow  limits.  He  was  au- 
thorized, also,  to  establish  necessary  tribunals,  civil  and 
criminal,  and  had  the  patronage  and  advowson  of  all 
churches,  the  right  of  erecting  places  of  worship,  to  be 
consecrated  according  to  the  "  ecclesiastical  law  of  En- 


208  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  gland,"  and  power,  also,  to  incorporate  cities,  and  grant 
'      titles  of  honor.      The  right  of  emigrating  to  the  province, 

1632.  and  the  enjoyment  there,  by  them  and  their  posterity,  of 
all  the  privileges  of  native-born  Englishmen,  were  secured 
to  all  English  subjects,  "  except  such  to  whom  it  shall  be 
expressly  forbidden."     Whatever  might  have  been  the  in- 
tentions of  Lord  Baltimore,  or  the  favorable  disposition 
of  the  king,  there  was  no  guarantee  in  the  charter,  nor, 
indeed,  the  least. hint  of  any  toleration  in  religion  not  au- 
thorized by  the  law  of  England.      The  introduction  of 
such  a  provision,  especially  in  favor  of  the  hated  Catho- 
lics, would  have  been  altogether  too  abhorrent  to  English 
prejudices. 

1633.  Even  as  it  was,  this  charter  encountered  a  warm  op- 
position, at  the  head  of  which  was  William  Clayborne, 
secretary,  and  one  of  the  Council  of  Virginia.      Origin- 
ally a  land  surveyor,  Clayborne  had  been  employed  in 
the  exploration  of  Chesapeake  Bay,  and  had  thus  been 
led  into  speculations  for  trade  with  the  Indians.      He 
had  induced  some  persons  of  influence  in  England  to 

1631.  join  him,  and  by  their  aid  had  obtained  a  royal  license 
for  "  trading  in  all  those  parts  for  which  patents  of  sole 
trade  had  not  already  been  granted."  Under  this  license 
he  had  established  a  post  on  the  Isle  of  Kent,  in  the  Ches- 
apeake, and  another  at  the  mouth  of  the  Susquehanna, 
both  within  the  chartered  limits  of  Maryland.  Clay- 
borne  and  his  associates  questioned  the  legality  of  a  grant 
thus  likely  to  interfere  with  their  license.  On  this  point 
they  obtained  a  hearing  before  the  Privy  Council,  which 
decided,  however,  to  leave  Lord  Baltimore  to  his  patent, 
and  the  complainants  to  the  course  of  law.  Orders -at 
the  same  time  were  sent  to  Virginia  for  a  good  under- 
standing between  the  two  colonies,  and  that  neither 
should  entertain  fugitives  from  the  other. 


SETTLEMENT   OF  MARYLAND.  209 

Under  the  leadership  of  Leonard  Calvert,  a  natural  son  CHAPTER 

of  the  first  Lord  Baltimore,  several  Catholic  gentlemen, 

with  their  indented  servants,  embarked  for  Maryland,  in  1633. 
two  ships,  the  Ark  and  Dove.     Like  the  first  settlers  of     Nov- 
Virginia,  they  proceeded  by  way  of  the  West  Indies,  and 
spent  the  winter  at  Barbadoes  and  St.  Christopher's,  then 
recently  occupied  by  English  colonists.     Early  in  the 
following  year  they  arrived  in  the  Chesapeake,  where  1634. 
they  met  a  courteous  reception  from  Harvey,  the  govern-  Feb-  a4- 
or  of  Virginia.     On  the  northern  shore  of  the  Potomac, 
not  far  from  its  mouth,  Calvert  found,  on  the  banks  of  a 
little  tributary  stream,  an  Indian  village,  which  the  in- 
habitants, through  fear  of  their  enemies  the  Susquehan- 
nas,  were  about  to  desert.      By  an  arrangement  made 
With  these  Indians,  the  newly-arrived  colonists  at  once 
occupied  the  town,  to  which  they  piously  gave  the  name 
of  St.  Mary's,  and  on  the  old  Indian  fields  they  raised 
that  same  season  an  abundant  crop  of  corn. 

The  Dove  was  presently  dispatched  to  Massachusetts  August 
with  a  cargo  of  this  corn,  to  exchange  for  fish.  She  car- 
ried a  friendly  letter  from  Calvert,  and  anothei  from  Har- 
vey ;  but  the  magistrates  were  rather  suspicious  of  a 
people  who  "  did  set  up  mass  openly."  Some  of  the  crew 
were  accused  of  reviling  the  inhabitants  of  Massachu- 
setts as  "  holy  brethren,"  "  the  members,"  &c.,  and,  just 
as  the  ship  was  about  to  sail,  the  supercargo,  happening 
on  shore,  was  arrested,  in  order  to  compel  the  master  to 
give  up  the  culprits.  The  proof  failed,  and  the  vessel 
was  suffered  to  depart,  but  not  without  a  special  charge 
to  the  master  "  to  bring  no  more  such  disordered  persons." 

Meanwhile  the  quarrel  with  Clayborne  was  coming  to 
a  head.     He  was  accused  of  spreading  reports  among  the 
Indians  unfavorable  to  the  new  colony,  and  he  even  car- 
ried his  hostility  so  far  as  to  fit  out  a  pinnace,  under  color 
I.  O 


210  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  of  his  exclusive  rights  of  trade,  with  orders,  it  was  said, 
to  capture  all  water  craft  belonging  to  the  Maryland  col- 

1635.  onists.     This  cruiser  was  pursued  by  two  armed  boats 
from  St.  Mary's,  and  a  miniature  naval  engagement  fol- 
lowed, in  which  several  men  were  killed  and  the  officers 
of  the  pinnace  made  prisoners.      The  Isle  of  Kent  was 
taken  possession  of  by  the  victorious  Marylanders.    Clay- 
borne,  who  escaped  to  Virginia,  was  claimed  by  Calvert 
as  a  fugitive  from  justice ;  but  Harvey  thought  proper 
to  send  him  to  England. 

The  Virginians  looked  upon  the  Maryland  colonists 
as  intruders,  and  the  grant  of  that  province  as  an  en- 
croachment. They  were  inclined,  therefore,  to  take 
sides  with  Clayborne.  Harvey,  the  governor,  was  un- 
popular on  other  accounts,  especially  by  reason  of  certain 
grants  of  land,  as  to  which  he  was  accused  of  favoritism. 
He  was  suspended  from  office  by  the  council,  and,  on 
April  28.  petition  of  many  inhabitants,  an  assembly  was  called  to 
receive  complaints  against  him.  Harvey  agreed  to  go 
to  England  to  answer  such  charges  as  might  be  laid  be- 
fore the  king,  and  John  West  was  appointed  by  the  coun- 
cil to  act  as  governor  in  the  interval.  The  persons  sent 
home  to  accuse  Harvey  were  not  even  admitted  to  a 

1636.  hearing,  and  the  deposed  governor  returned  to  Virginia 
with  a  new  commission,  under  which  he  remained  in 
office  three  or  four  years  longer,  till  at  length  he  was 

1639.  superseded  by  Sir  Francis  Wyatt. 

Maryland,  meanwhile,  continued  to  receive  additional 
settlers,  though  not  in  any  considerable  numbers.  Be- 
sides liberal  grants  to  those  already  there,  the  proprietary 
promised  to  all  new  comers  a  thousand  acres  of  land  for 
every  five  men  transported  to  the  colony,  these  grants  to 
be  erected  into  manors,  to  be  held  at  a  yearly  rent  of 
twenty  shillings  for  every  thousand  acres,  payable  in 


SETTLEMENT   OF  MARYLAND.  211 

commodities.     Immigrants  of  less  means  were  promised  CHAPTER 

a  hundred  acres  for  themselves,  as  many  more  for  their . 

wives,  a  hundred  for  each  man  servant,  fifty  for  each  1636. 
child,  and  the  same  for  each  maid  servant,  to  be  held  at 
a  like  rent.  Through  these  quit-rents  the  proprietor 
hoped  to  derive  some  return  for  his  heavy  outlays,  which 
amounted  in  the  two  first  years  of  the  colony  to  j£40,000, 
or  about  $192,000. 

Already  an  assembly  had  been  held,  and  a  body  of  1635. 
laws  had  been  enacted ;  but  these  the  proprietary  had 
rejected  on  the  ground  that,  under  the  charter,  the  in- 
itiative in  legislation  belonged  to  him.  He  presently 
sent  over  a  set  of  statutes  drawn  up  by  himself,  to  be 
laid  before  a  second  assembly;  but  that  body  declined  1638. 
to  admit  the  initiative  claimed  by  the  proprietary,  or  to 
sanction  his  proposed  laws.  Clayborne's  officers,  cap- 
tured in  the  sea-fight,  were  tried  before  this  assembly 
for  murder,  and  found  guilty.  Clayborne  himself  was 
attainted,  and  his  property  at  Kent  Island  confiscated. 

Lord  Baltimore  having  yielded  the  disputed  point  of 
the  initiative,  a  third  assembly  was  held,  at  which  the  1639. 
first  statutes  of  Maryland  were  enacted.  This  assembly 
was  composed  partly  of  deputies  from  the  several  hundreds 
into  which  the  colony  had  been  divided,  and  partly  of  in- 
dividuals specially  summoned  by  the  governor.  The  first 
business  was  an  act  "  establishing  the  House  of  Assem- 
bly," which  confirmed  the  constitution  of  that  body  as 
above  described — a  constitution  which  remained  in  force 
as  long  as  Maryland  continued  a  colony,  except  that  sub- 
sequently those  called  by  special  summons  sat  apart  as 
an  upper  house,  with  a  negative  on  the  deputies.  Yet 
the  individual  right  of  each  freeman  to  be  present  in  the 
assembly  was  but  gradually  disused.  At  this  very  ses- 
sion, and  also  in  subsequent  assemblies,  individuals  were 


212  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  admitted  to  take  their  seats  in  person,  on  the  ground  of 

VIII. 

non-assent  on  their  part  to  the  appointment  of  burgesses 

1 639.  from  those  hundreds  to  which  they  belonged. 

After  thus  legalizing  its  own  Constitution,  and  adopt- 
ing certain  rules  of  proceeding,  the  assembly  took  in  hand 
a  number  of  bills  establishing  a  system  of  municipal  law. 
These  bills  were  carried  forward  to  their  last  stage,  but, 
for  some  reason  which  does  not  appear,  they  did  not  re- 
ceive the  final  assent  of  the  assembly.  An  act  was 
passed  instead,  in  sixteen  short  sections,  a  sort  of  re- 
capitulation of  those  bills,  but  less  precise  and  exact. 
Among  these  unpassed  bills  was  one  relating  to  crimes 
and  punishments,  which  deserves  notice,  as  throwing 
some  light  on  the  manners  and  opinions  of  the  colonists. 
This  bill  created,  besides  treasons,  which  were  very 
comprehensive,  fourteen  felonies  punishable  with  death 
Among  them,  assault  upon  the  governor,  or  any  judge-, 
attended  with  bloodshed ;  giving  or  selling  guns  or  pow- 
der to  the  Indians,  or  teaching  them  their  use ;  polyg- 
amy ;  sacrilege ;  idolatry ;  sorcery  and  blasphemy,  de- 
fined to  be  "a  cursing  or  wicked  speaking  of  God :"  the 
punishment  in  the  last  three  cases  to  be  by  burning. 
Seven  other  felonies  were  enumerated,  for  which  the  of- 
fender was  to  suffer  death  by  hanging,  "  except  he  can 
read  clerk-like,  and  then  he  shall  lose  his  handr  or  be 
buined  in  the  hand  or  forehead  with  a  red-hot  iron,  and 
forfeit  his  land  and  goods."  This  was  "  the  benefit  of 
clergy"  borrowed  from  the  English  law.  One  of  these 
felonies  to  which  "  book  was  allowed"  was  "  stealth  of 
one's  self,  which  is  the  unlawful  departure  of  a  servant 
out  of  service,  or  out  of  the  colony,  without  the  privity 
or  consent  of  the  master  or  mistress."  The  act  of  a  sub- 
sequent assembly  made  this  offense  capital  on  the  first 
conviction.  Among  the  inferior  offenses  enumerated  in 


SETTLEMENT  OF  MARYLAND.  3^3 

these  bills,  and  made  punishable  by  imprisonment,  fine,  CHAPTER 

or  whipping,  were  "withdrawing  one's  self  out  of  the 

province  to  reside  among  any  Indians  not  Christianized;"  1639. 
fornication ;  adultery ;  not  making  proper  provision  of 
food,  lodging,  or  clothing  for  servants,  or  not  fulfilling 
contracts  with  them ;  disobedience  or  neglect  on  the 
part  of  servants ;  working  on  the  Lord's  day,  or  other 
holy  days  ;  eating  flesh  in  Lent,  or  on  other  days  wherein 
it  is  prohibited  by  the  law  of  England ;  giving  false 
alarms,  or  not  answering  an  alarm. 

The  law  actually  passed  made  no  such  specific  provis- 
ions. For  crimes  extending  to  life  or  member,  the  of- 
fender was  to  be  first  indicted,  and  then  tried  by  a  jury 
of  "  twelve  freemen  at  the  least ;"  the  court,  which  con- 
sisted of  the  governor  and  council,  to  inflict  such  punish- 
ment as  they  might  think  the  offense  deserved.  In  civil 
cases  the  governor  was  sole  judge,  with  the  assistance, 
however,  of  such  counselors  as  he  saw  fit  to  call  in. 
He  was  to  do  justice  according  to  the  laws  and  "  lauda- 
ble usages"  of  the  province ;  and  when  other  rule  was 
wanting,  the  law  of  England  was  to  govern.  For  the 
convenience  of  the  people  at  the  Isle  of  Kent,  the  com- 
mander there  was  authorized  to  hold  civil  and  criminal 
courts  in  the  governor's  stead ;  and  monthly  or  county 
courts,  like  those  of  Virginia,  were  presently  established 
for  the  benefit  of  the  rest  of  the  province.  The  probate 
of  wills  and  granting  of  administrations  was  given  to  the 
secretary.  The  assembly  itself,  as  in  Virginia  and  New 
England,  remained  the  final  court  of  appeal.  When  the 
goods  of  a  creditor  were  not  sufficient  to  pay  his  debts, 
they  were  to  be  sold  "  at  an  outcry,"  and  the  proceeds 
to  be  distributed,  in  the  ratio  of  their  respective  claims, 
among  the  creditors  "  inhabiting  within  the  province." 
This  exclusion  of  foreign  creditors  was  borrowed  from 


214  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  Virginia,  in  which  province  they  could  not  even  sue  ex- 

cept  for  the  price  of  goods  sold  to  be  transported  thither. 

1639.  Debts  due  the  proprietary,  and  fees  of  public  officers, 
were  entitled,  however,  to  priority  of  payment ;  but  those 
contracted  for  "  wines  and  strong  waters"  were  only  to 
come  in  after  all  others  were  fully  paid.  Every  person 
employed  in  planting  tobacco  was  required  to  plant  and 
tend  two  acres  of  corn.  Provision  was  made  for  building 
a  water-mill  at  the  public  expense. 

It  was  provided  in  this  same  act,  in  the  words  of 
Magna  Charta,  that  "  Holy  Church  within  this  province 
shall  have  all  her  rights  and  liberties."  As  the  proprie- 
tor and  most  of  the  colonists  were  Catholics,  it  must  have 
been  the  Catholic  Church  that  was  meant.  Yet  it  was 
no  part  of  Lord  Baltimore's  plan  to  establish  an  exclu- 
sive Catholic  colony.  A  proclamation  of  the  governor 
had  expressly  prohibited  "  all  unseasonable  disputations 
in  point  of  religion,  tending  to  the  disturbance  of  the 
public  peace  and  quiet  of  the  colony,  and  to  the  opening 
of  faction  in  religion ;"  and  under  this  proclamation  one 
William  Lewis,  a  zealous  Catholic,  for  his  abuse  of  a 
book  of  Protestant  sermons,  which  certain  indented  serv- 
ants delighted  to  read,  and  forbidding  them  to  read  it, 
had  been  fined,  and  obliged  to  give  security  to  keep  the 
peace.  It  was  quite  as  much  as  the  state  of  feeling  in 
England  would  permit  that  the  public  exercise  of  the 
Catholic  religion  should  be  allowed  in  the  colony  ;  it 
never  would  have  been  endured  that  Protestantism  should 
be  excluded.  Baltimore  was  no  zealot ;  his  great  ob- 
ject was  to  procure  settlers,  and  he  presently  sent  agents 
for  that  purpose,  though  without  success,  even  to  Puri- 
tan New  England. 

The  large  quantities  of  tobacco  produced  in  Barbadoes, 
Antigua,  and  the  other  English  settlements  in  the  West 


fc  1'- 
FIRST  AMERICAN   STOP  LAW. 

Indies  added  to  the  increased  crop  of  Virginia  and  Mary-  OH*™* 

din  the  total  produce  for  the  year  to  a  muho ^  and  a 
half  of  pounds,  half  the  crop  was  ordered  to  be  bui 
and  the  crops  of  the  two  succeeding  years  were  to  be 
kept  still  smaller.     But  tobacco  was  the  currency r  as 
Jll  as  the  staple  of  the  colony,  and  to  ^^g 
culty  in  paying  debts  likely  to  arise  ^f^S 
ed  production,  all  creditors  were  reqmred  to  tak 
pounds  for  the  hundred,  and  to  be  content   "during  * 
m*  with  receiving  two  thirds  even  of  that  reduced 
amount.     Such  was  the  first  American  stop  law.     Th 

tTess  than  two  shiUings,  under  pain  of  forfeiture.    How 
this  scheme  succeeded  we  are  not  informed. 


216  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

'n°™™SS™F   MASSACI«>SETTS.     CONNECTICUT.     PROVI 
252?    RHODEISLAND.    NEW  HAVEN.    NEW  SOJlSJ' 


IMMEDIATELY  after  the  election  in  Massachusetts, 
-  at  whlch  the  freemen  had  reclaimed  their  rights  of  legis- 

4  7°tV      !  d,ePUti6S  fr°m  6ach  °f  the  e%ht  princlpa. 
plantations  took  their  seats  with  the  magistrates,  and  this 
•rst  representative  court  proceeded  to  the  enactment  of 
some  zmportant  laws.    The  session  was  held  in  the  Bos- 
ton  meetmg.house,  and  lasted  three  days.     It  was  or 
dered  that  jurors  be  selected  in  each  town,  and  tha    all 
cases  mvolvmg  life  or  banishment  be  tried  by  jury  or  by 
he  General  Court.    Rejecting  that  system  of  poj  taxi! 
tion  winch  prevailed  in  Virginia,  all  rates  and  pubHc 

Sd^f  be  'r1  "  acoording  to  e^  «-'-- 

te,  and  w,th  cons,deration  of  all  other  his  abijitie     and 
not  according  to  the  number  of  his  persons."    A  sea  fort 
-s  ord     d  to  be  built,  to  command  the  entrlTlnl 
Boston  harbor.     The  regulations  respecting  trespass^ 
-ne-the  immediate  cause  of  the  lajpo^al  chLTe- 
were  repealed,  and  this  matter  was  left  to  the  several 
towns^  It  proved,  however,  an  embarrassing  su^e.^    nd 
was  often  afterward  before  the  court.    The  next  year  the 
pra    lce  of  lmpounding  stray  an.mals  ^  .J 

much  the  same  as  exists  at  present.  The  year  after 
a  spec.,  officer,  called  a  «  hog.reave,»  was  orLed  Jg 
elected  m  each  town,  to  look  after  those  animals;  but 
frequent  changes  afterward  in  the  law  upon  this  subject 
showed  how  dlfficult  it  was  to  reconcile  the  conflicting 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  I.     217 

interests  of  the  corn-growers  and  the  pig-owners.      A  CHAPTER 

small  matter,  this,  for  history,  but  why  smaller  than  other 

like  conflicts  of  interest,  of  which  so  much  of  our  politics  1634. 
consists  ? 

While  the  court  was  still  sitting,  six  "great  ships" 
arrived,  "  with  store  of  passengers  and  cattle,"  followed 
within  a  month  by  fifteen  more.  John  Humphrey,  one 
of  the  original  patentees  of  the  colony,  but  who  had  hith- 
erto remained  at  home,  came  out  in  one  of  these  ships, 
with  his  wife,  the  Lady  Susan,  bringing  with  him  a  quan- 
tity of  ordnance,  muskets,  and  powder,  a  present  from 
"  godly  people  in  England,"  who  began  now  "  to  appre- 
hend a  special  hand  of  God  in  raising 'this  plantation." 
He  brought,  also,  "propositions  from  some  persons  of 
great  quality  and  estate,  and  of  special  note  for  piety," 
evincing  an  intention,  if  certain  points  were  conceded,  of 
joining  the  Massachusetts  colonists. 

To  all  friends,  indeed,  of  civil  and  religious  freedom, 
the  state  of  things  in  Englan^was  exceedingly  discour- 
aging. Laud  and  the  perfidious  Wentworth,  fit  instru- 
ments of  despotism,  carried  every  thing  their  own  way ; 
and  the  king's  proclaimed  resolution  to  call  no  more 
Parliaments  seemed  to  leave  but  little  hope  of  redress. 
The  Lords  Say  and  Brooke,  already  mentioned,  with 
Hampden,  Pym,  and  others,  who  acted,  a  few  years  later, 
so  conspicuous  a  part  in  English  affairs,  had  obtained 
from  the  Earl  of  Warwick  a  conveyance  of  all  that  tract  1631. 
of  New  England,  extending  westward  from  Narragan-  Mar>  17* 
set  River  a  hundred  and  twenty  miles  along  the  coast, 
and  thence  to  the  Pacific.  By  what  right  Warwick 
made  this  conveyance  does  not  distinctly  appear.  It  was 
subsequently  alleged  by  the  people  of  Connecticut  that 
he  had  a  grant  from  the  Council  for  New  England,  and 
a  charter  from  the  king ;  but  no  such  documents  are  now 


218  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  in  existence,  and  probably  never  were  ;  at  least,  no  such 
'       charter.     Whatever  the  title  of  these  lords  and  gentle- 

O 

1634.  men  might  be,  they  entertained  the  project  of  removing 
to  America,  and  of  uniting  themselves  with  the  Massa- 
chusetts colony.  But  their  ideas  of  government,  as  we 
shall  presently  see,  did  not  correspond  with  those  preva- 
lent in  Massachusetts. 

At  the  same  time  came  other  less  agreeable  news. 
Notwithstanding  a  detailed  answer  by  the  magistrates  to 
the  complaints  of  Morton  and  others,  and  exculpatory  cer- 
tificates from  the  old  planters,  sent  home  the  year  before, 
a  new  petition  to  the  Privy  Council,  on  the  part  of  Mor- 
ton and  his  associates,  had  led  to  very  alarming  proceed- 
ings. The  Council  for  New  England,  summoned  to  an- 
swer to  this  petition,  as  being  in  some  sort  responsible 
for  the  general  oversight  of  all  the  territories  within  their 
patent,  not  only  disclaimed  having  any  hand  in  the  mat- 
ters complained  of,  but  added  new  and  serious  charges 
of  their  own.  •  They  accused  the  Massachusetts  Com- 
pany of  having  "  surreptitiously  obtained  a  grant  of  lands 
previously  conveyed  to  others,"  whose  tenants  and  rep- 
resentatives they  had  "  thrust  out ;"  for  which  lands, 
without  the  privity  of  the  Council  for  New  England,  they 
had  obtained  a  royal  charter,  "  whereby  they  wholly  ex- 
cluded themselves  from  the  public  government  of  the 
council  authorized  for  those  affairs,  and  made  themselves 
a  free  people,  and  so  framed  unto  themselves  both  new 
laws  and  new  conceits  of  matters  of  religion,  and  forms 
of  ecclesiastical  and  temporal  orders  and  government ; 
punishing  diverse  that  would  not  approve  thereof,  some 
by  whipping,  and  others  by  burning  their  houses  over 
their  heads,  and  some  by  banishing,  and  all  this  partly 
under  other  pretenses,  though,  indeed,  for  no  other  cause 
gave  only  to  make  themselves  absolute  masters  of  the 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  I.      219 

country,  and  unconscionable  in  their  new  laws."     The  CHAPTER 

Council   for   New   England  represented  themselves   as 

wholly  unable  to  redress  these  grievances,  and  they  1634. 
humbly  referred  the  whole  matter  to  their  lordships  of 
the  Privy  Council,  to  take  such  steps  "  as  might  best 
sort  with  their  wisdoms ;"  upon  which  reference  their 
lordships  saw  "  a  necessity  for  his  majesty  to  take  the 
whole  business  into  his  own  hands." 

A  Commission,  with  Laud  at  its  head,  had  been 
constituted,  to  which  was  given  full  power  over  the 
American  plantations  to  revise  the  laws,  to  regulate  the 
Church,  and  to  revoke  charters.  The  members  of  the 
Massachusetts  Company  resident  in  England  had  been 
called  upon  by  this  commission  to  deliver  up  their  pat- 
ent, and  Cradock  had  written  to  have  it  sent  over.  It 
had  even  beeji  proposed  to  stop  the  ships  bound  for  Mas- 
sachusetts— a  measure  only  prevented  by  the  urgency 
of  the  merchants  who  owned  them.  A  letter  from  Mor- 
ton to  one  of  the  old  planters  was  communicated  to  the 
magistrates,  in  which  he  alleged  that  a  governor  general 
for  New  England  was  already  commissioned. 

This  news  produced  the  greatest  alarm.  The  magis- 
trates, with  divers  of  the  elders,  met  forthwith  at  Castle  July. 
Island,  at  the  entrance  of  the  inner  harbor  of  Boston, 
and  agreed  upon  the  erection  of  a  fortification  there,  and 
to  advance  the  means  themselves  until  the  meeting  of 
the  General  Court.  Dudley  and  Winthrop  wrote  private 
letters  of  intercession  to  England,  while  the  governor  and 
assistants,  in  a  public  letter  to  Cradock,  excused  them- 
selves for  not  sending  over  the  patent,  as  no  steps  could 
be  taken  in  a  matter  so  important  before  the  meeting  of 
the  General  Court. 

When  that  body  came  together,  it  took  active  meas-  Sept.  4. 
ures  for  defense.     Money  was  voted  for  the  fort  in  Bos- 


220  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  ton  harbor :    the  fort  in   the  town  was  ordered   to  be 

IX 

'  armed ;  other  forts  were  to  be  commenced  at  Dorchester 
1634.  and  Charlestown  ;  and  power  was  given  to  impress  labor- 
ers for  the  purpose.  A  cannoneer  was  appointed,  and 
overseers  of  powder  and  shot ;  military  watches  were  or- 
dered to  be  kept  in  all  the  towns ;  and  Dudley,  Winthrop, 
Haynes,  Humphrey,  and  Endicott  were  appointed  com- 
missioners "  to  consult,  direct,  and  give  command  for  the 
managing  and  ordering  of  any  war  that  might  befall  for 
the  space  of  a  year  next  ensuing,  and  till  further  order." 
In  the  midst  of  these  preparations,  a  dangerous  dis- 
pute as  to  the  extent  of  their  respective  powers  broke  out 
between  the  magistrates  and  the  deputies.  In  the  course 
1633.  of  the  previous  year,  Oldham,  the  Indian  trader,  with 
three  companions,  had  traveled  over  land  as  far  as  the 
Dutch  and  Plymouth  trading-houses  on  the  Connecti- 
cut, and  had  brought  back  very  flattering  reports  of  that 
country.  The  people  of  Newtown,  dissatisfied  with  their 
situation,  had  sent  explorers  thither,  and  they  now  asked 
permission  of  the  court  to  remove  and  settle  there.  It 
was  objected,  however,  that  such  a  removal  would  be  a 
violation  of  their  oaths  as  freemen,  by  which  they  were 
bound  to  seek  the  welfare  of  the  "  commonwealth,"  still 
weak,  and  now  in  danger  of  being  assailed.  Perils  from 
the  Dutch  and  the  Indians  were  also  alleged,  and  the 
danger  of  settling  without  a  patent  beyond  the  limits  of 
the  Massachusetts  charter.  Nor  were  more  mystical  rea- 
sons wanting.  "  The  removal  of  a  candlestick  is  a  great 
judgment,  which  ought  to  be  avoided."  These  arguments 
decided  a  majority  of  the  magistrates  against  granting 
permission ;  but  a  majority  of  the  deputies,  amounting 
to  a  majority  of  the  whole  court,  were  inclined  the  other 
way.  Were  the  magistrates,  under  these  circumstances, 
entitled  to  a  negative  ?  The  dispute  on  this  point  grew 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  I.      221 

very  warm,  and  the  session  was  adjourned.     When  the  CHAPTER 
court  reassembled,  Cotton  preached  a  sermon  in  favor 
of  the  magistrates'  negative ;   "  and  it  pleased  the  Lord  1634. 
so  to  assist  him,  and  to  bless  his  own  ordinance,  that  the 
affairs  of  the  court  went  on  cheerfully."    The  Newtown 
petitioners,  upon  promise  of  certain  neighboring  lands, 
were  induced  to  forego  their  project  of  removal,  and  the 
necessity  of  deciding  the  disputed  question  of  authority 
was  thus  for  the  time  avoided. 

Stoughton,  one  of  the  deputies,  not  content  thus  to 
let  the  matter  rest,  circulated  a  small  treatise  in  manu- 
script, in  which  he  argued  against  the  magistrates'  nega- 
tive, and  also  maintained  that  the  office  of  governor  was 
merely  ministerial ;  and  for  this  offense  he  was  presently 
summoned  before  the  magistrates.  Not  finding  the  sup-  1635. 
port  he  had  expected  from  the  deputies,  he  desired  "that  March- 
the  said  book  might  forthwith  be  burned  as  weak  and 
offensive."  Even  this  humble  submission  did  not  save 
him,  for  the  court  imposed,  as  an  additional  punishment, 
incapacity  for  three  years  to  hold  office. 

In  the  case  of  Roger  Williams  had  occurred  a  pre- 
vious instance  of  like  magisterial  interference  with  free- 
dom of  opinion.  That  zealous  young  minister,  after  a 
two  years'  residence  at  Plymouth,  had  returned  to  Salem,  1633. 
where,  though  not  in  any  office,  he  "  exercised  by  way 
of  prophecy"  to  the  acceptance  and  edification  of  the 
Church.  During  his  late  residence  at  Plymouth,  Will- 
iams had  presented  to  the  magistrates  there  a  manu- 
script treatise,  in  which  he  had  denied  any  validity  in  a 
royal  patent,  especially  from  such  kings  as  the  present 
one  and  his  father,  to  give  title  to  lands  in  America. 
Called  upon  by  the  magistrates  of  Massachusetts,  who 
still  regarded  him  with  some  suspicion,  to  produce  a  copy 
of  this  treatise,  in  which  treason  was  thought  to  lurk, 


222  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  Williams  had  written  a  submissive  letter,  in  which  he 
'      offered  his  book,  or  any  part  of  it,  to  be  burned.     In  tho 

1634.  light  of  this  letter,  the  offensive  passages  appeared  "  very 
obscure,  and  to  admit  of  doubtful  interpretation ;"  and 

January,  the  magistrates,  after  consultation  with  Cotton  and  Wil- 
son, agreed  to  pass  the  matter  over  upon  Williams's  tak- 
ing the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  king.  Scarcely,  how- 
ever, had  he  escaped  from  this  difficulty ,  when  his  un- 
compromising zeal  involved  both  himself  and  Endicott  in 
another.  Just  before  the  late  alarming  news  from  En- 
gland, Williams  had  persuaded  Endicott,  the  military 
commander  at  Salem,  to  cut  from  his  colors  the  red  cross. 
Scruples  on  the  subject  of  this  cross  in  the  colors  were  by 
no  means  confined  to  Endicott  and  Williams.  It  was 
commonly  esteemed  in  Massachusetts  "  a  relic  of  anti- 
Christ,"  a  popish  symbol  savoring  of  superstition,  and  not 
to  be  countenanced  by  Christian  men.  But  would  not 
such  a  defacement,  especially  at  this  crisis,  assume  the  ap- 
pearance of  an  open  renunciation  of  the  king's  authority  ? 

1635.  A  complaint  was  presently  lodged  with  the  magis- 
January.  trates,  who  called  in  the  elders  to  advise,  not  only  as  to 

the  cross  in  the  colors,  but  as  to  the  general  policy  to 
be  adopted  in  the  present  threatening  aspect  of  affairs. 
It  was  agreed  unanimously  by  the  elders,  that  if  a  gov- 
ernor general  were  sent  over,  he  ought  not  to  be  ac- 
cepted ;  and  that  the  colonists  ought  to  defend  "  their 
lawful  possessions,"  forcibly  if  they  could,  or  if  too  weak 
for  that,  by  "  avoidance  and  delays."  The  question  of 
the  cross  in  the  colors  proved  more  difficult  of  solution, 
March,  and  was  referred  to  the  next  General  Court.  That  court 

May.  also  postponed  it,  and  meanwhile  the  commissioners  for 
military  affairs  ordered  all  the  colors  to  be  laid  aside. 

May.  Several  new  members  having  been  added  to  that  com- 
mission, it  was  now  intrusted  with  entire  control  over  the 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  I.      223 

military  array  of  the  colony,  with  authority  to  make  war  CHAPTER 
either  offensive  or  defensive,  and  to  imprison,  or,  in  case  ' 
of  resistance,  to  put  to  death  "  any  that  they  shall  judge  1635. 
to  be  enemies  of  the  Commonwealth."  This  dictatorial 
power,  wisely  limited  till  the  next  court,  was  renewed 
at  several  successive  sessions.  The  governor  was  to 
have  a  guard  of  six  men  with  halberds  and  swords.  A 
beacon,  to  be  fired  in  case  of  alarm,  was  ordered  to  be 
set  up  on  Sentry  Hill,  in  Boston.  An  oath  of  fidelity 
to  the  Commonwealth  was  imposed  upon  all  resident 
non-freemen,  and  trade  with  any  ships  was  prohibited 
without  leave  of  the  magistrates.  The  charge  of  diet- 
ing the  assistants  and  deputies  during  the  general  courts 
was  ordered  to  be  paid  out  of  the  public  treasury.  Fines 
were  imposed  for  absence  from  public  worship.  Grand 
Buries  were  ordered  to  be  appointed  twice  a  year,  to  give 
information  of  all  breaches  of  orders. 

This  court  was  no  sooner  over  than  Williams  found 
himself  a  fourth  time  in  trouble.  He  denied  the  lawful- 
ness of  the  oath  imposed  on  the  non-freemen,  on  the 
ground,  it  would  seem,  of  the  sinfulness  of  joining  with 
the  unregenerate  in  any  religious  act.  He  also  ques- 
tioned the  law  compelling  attendance  on  public  worship. 
Amid  all  his  whimsies,  the  vigorous  intellect  of  Williams 
had  seized  the  great  idea  of  what  he  called  "  soul-liberty," 
the  inviolable  freedom  of  opinion,  that  is,  on  the  subject 
of  religion — an  idea  at  that  time  wholly  novel,  but  which, 
by  its  gradual  reception,  has  wrought,  in  the  course  of 
two  centuries,  such  remarkable  changes  in  Christendom. 
So  alarming  a  heresy  was  not  suffered  to  go  long  unre- 
buked.  Being  sent  for  by  the  magistrates,  Williams  was  April  30 
"  heard  before  all  the  ministers,  and  very  clearly  con- 
futed." Endicott  was  at  first  inclined  to  support  him, 
but  finally  "  gave  place  to  the  truth." 


224  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER       At  the  Court  of  Elections,  a  few  days  after,  the  free- 

men.  followed  up  the  doctrine  of  rotation  in  office  by 

1635.  choosing  Haynes  as  governor,  a  choice  agreed  upon  by 
May  6.  deputies  from  the  towns,  who  came  together  for  that  pur- 
pose previously  to  the  meeting  of  the  court — the  first  in- 
stance of  the  "  caucus  system"  on  record.  Ludlow,  the 
late  deputy,  who  seems  to  have  expected  the  office  of  gov- 
ernor, was  so  indignant  at  this  proceeding,  that  he  called 
in  question  the  validity  of  the  election  ;  to  which  the  free- 
men replied  by  leaving  him  out  of  the  magistracy.  Rich- 
ard Bellingham,  who  had  arrived  during  the  preceding 
year,  was  chosen  in  Ludlow's  place  as  deputy  governor. 
A  joint  committee  of  four  magistrates  and  one  delegate 
from  each  town,  chosen  by  the  assembled  freemen,  to 
which  Endicott's  conduct  in  the  case  of  the  mutilated 
colors  was  referred,  reported  "  that  he  had  offended  many 
ways ;  in  rashness,  uncharitableness,  indiscretion,  and 
exceeding  the  limits  of  his  authority  ;"  whereupon  the 
court  sentenced  him  "to  be  sadly  admonished,"  and  de- 
clared him  incapable  of  office  for  a  year.  But  this  sen- 
tence related  more  to  form  than  to  substance.  The 
scruples  about  the  cross  in  the  colors  still  remained.  It 
was  proposed  to  substitute  the  white  and  red  rose  in- 
stead ;  but  final  action  was  delayed  to  wait  the  opinion 
of  certain  of  "  the  most  wise  and  godly  in  England,"  to 
whom  the  ministers  proposed  to  write.  Meanwhile,  the 
colors  remained  disused. 

Leave  was  given  at  this  court  to  the  people  of  Rox- 
bury  and  Watertown  to  remove  where  they  pleased,  pro- 
vided they  continued  under  the  jurisdiction.  They  al- 
leged the  want  of  pasturage  for  their  cattle  as  their  rea- 
son for  removal.  A  bark  having  arrived  from  England 
with  twenty  servants,  sent  by  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall, 
to  plant  on  the  Connecticut,  the  project  of  removing  thith- 


NEW   ENGLAND  UNDER   CHARLES  I.  225 

er  was  revived.      The  mouth  of  the  Merrimac  was  also  CHAPTER 

IX 

occupied,  and  a  town  established  there  called  Newbury,  ' 
of  which  Richard  Dummer  was  a  principal  founder.  1635. 
Some  of  the  new  comers  of  the  last  year  had  removed  to 
Agawam,  which  they  called  Ipsimchj  and  a  church  had 
been  gathered  there,  of  which  Nathaniel  Ward  was  chos- 
en teacher.  The  famous  Norton,  afterward  minister  of 
Boston,  who  arrived  in  New  England  toward  the  close 
of  the  present  year,  was  soon  after  settled  at  Ipswich  as 
Ward's  colleague.  Another  body  of  new  comers  estab- 
lished themselves,  and  gathered  a  church  at  Wissagus- 
set,  to  which  they  gave  the  name  of  Wei/mouth.  Near 
by,  at  Hingham,  was  another  new  plantation.  A  set- 
tlement was  also  begun  at  Marblehead.  It  was  no  easy 
matter  for  the  now  numerous  emigrants  to  find  conven- 
ient situations.  Unwooded  meadows,  affording  hay  and 
pasturage  for  cattle,  were  chiefly  sought  for.  As  the 
best  points  on  the  coast  were  already  taken  up,  some  of 
the  new  comers  ventured  inland,  and  Dedham  and  Con- 
cord, the  first  interior  towns,  began  now  to  be  settled. 
An  important  law,  enacted  the  next  year,  prohibited  the 
erection  of  dwelling-houses  in  any  new  town,  at  a  greater 
distance  than  half  a  mile  from  the  meeting-house.  Lands 
were  seldom  granted  to  individuals,  but  only  to  compa- 
nies associated  together  for  settling  a  plantation.  The 
New  England  settlements  were  thus  made  villages,  dif- 
fering, in  that  respect,  from  those  of  Virginia,  whence 
resulted  a  concentrated  population  and  a  co-operative  en- 
ergy, not  without  important  social  results.  As  these 
regulations  had  chiefly  in  view  the  religious  organization 
of  the  settlers,  care  was  taken  to  strengthen  the  theoc- 
racy by  forbidding  any  but  church  members  to  vote  in 
town  affairs. 

The  Council  for  New  England,  before  making  a  for- 
I.  P 


226  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  mal  surrender  of  their  patent,  had  divided  their  whole 
territory  into  twelve  portions  or  provinces,  assigned  to 
1635.  eight  principal   members,  to  whom   the   king  was  re- 
quested to  issue  proprietary  charters,  like  that  granted 
to  Lord  Baltimore.      The  Earl  of   Stirling  had  for  his 
share  the  district  from  St.  Croix  to  Pemaquid  Point; 
but  this  region,  like  the  adjoining  province  of  Nova  Sco- 
tia, was  claimed  by  the  French  as  a  part  of  Acadie. 
Long  Island,  Nantucket,  and  Martha's  Vineyard  were 
also  assigned  to  the  Earl  of  Stirling.      Gorges  had  two 
provinces,  including  his  portion  of  the  old  grant  of  Laco- 
nia,   extending  from   the  Kennebec  to  the  Piscataqua. 
Mason  retained  his  province  of  New  Hampshire.     The 
district  west  of  Narraganset  Bay  was  assigned  to  the 
Marquis  of  Hamilton.     It  is  not  necessary  to  enumerate 
the  other  provinces,  as  no  claim  to  them  was  ever  set  up 
under  this  division.      It  was  arranged  that  Gorges  should 
go  to  New  England  as  governor  general,  supported  by  a 
force  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  men,  ten  to  be  contributed 
for  each  province.      The  vessel  he  was  to  go  in  broke 
in  launching ;   and  this  accident,  which  prevented  his  de- 
parture, was  regarded  in  Massachusetts  as  a  special  Prov- 
idence.   Yet  the  news  from  England  still  continued  alarm- 
ing.     Mason,  who  claimed  by  prior  grant  a  part  of  the 
Massachusetts  territory,  had  caused  a  process   of   Quo 
Warranto  to  be  commenced  against  the  charter.     Wins- 
low  had  gone  to  England  on  behalf  of  the  colony  of  Plym- 
outh, to   solicit   a  commission  to  withstand  the  intru- 
sions of  the  French  and  Dutch — a  proceeding  esteemed 
in  Massachusetts  "  ill-advised,  and  dangerous  to  the  lib- 
erty of  the  colonies,  tending  to  establish  the  precedent 
of  doing  nothing  but  by  commission  out  of  England." 
Nor  was  it  attended  with  any  success  ;  for  Winslow  was 
seized  in  the  midst  of  his  negotiations  on  complaint  of 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  I. 


227 


Morton,  and  detained  in  prison  for  upward  of  four  months,  CHAPTER 
on  the  charge  of  having  presumed,  being  a  layman,  to 
teach  in  the  church  at  Plymouth,  and  to  perform  the  1635. 
marriage  ceremony. 

The  French,  meanwhile,  continued  their  encroach- 
ments. Razzillai,  governor  of  Acadie  for  the  Company 
of  New  France,  sent  an  armed  ship  to  Penobscot,  and 
took  possession  of  the  Plymouth  trading  house  there. 
Bills  on  France  were  given  for  the  goods,  and  the  men 
were  sent  home  with  a  message  that  the  French  claimed 
to  Pemaquid  Point,  and  intended  to  "  displant"  all  the 
English  who  might  settle  beyond  that  limit.  Roused 
by  this  new  aggression,  the  people  of  Plymouth,  without  August. 
waiting  for  any  commission  from  England,  attempted  to 
recover  their  trading  house  by  force.  They  hired  one 
ship  for  the  expedition,  and  sent  another  smaller  one  of 
their  own.  But  the  French  were  strongly  posted ;  the 
two  ships  spent  all  their  powder,  and  the  smaller  one 
came  back  for  supply  and  re-enforcement.  The  Massa- 
chusetts General  Court  were  applied  to  for  assistance,  Sept. 
and  they  offered  to  give  it  if  Plymouth  would  pay  the 
expense.  But  the  Plymouth  commissioners  insisted  that 
this  was  "  a  common  cause  of  the  whole  country."  Upon 
this  difference  the  expedition  fell  through,  and  the  French 
remained  in  possession  of  Penobscot,  which  they  contin- 
ued to  hold  for  many  years. 

The  same  court  at  which  Plymouth  had  applied  for 
aid  against  the  French  was  much  occupied  with  the  case 
of  Roger  Williams,  whom,  notwithstanding  his  heresies 
lately  promulgated,  the  Salem  church  had  presumed  to 
elect  as  their  pastor,  in  place  of  Skelton,  lately  deceased. 
Williams  had  been  summoned,  in  consequence,  before  the  July. 
Court  of  Assistants,  and  divers  of  his  opinions — his  doc- 
trine, in  particular,  "  that  the  magistrate  ought  not  to 


228  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  punish  breaches  of  the  first  table" — that  is,  ought  not  to 
'      enforce  religious  opinions  and  observances  by  law — had 
1635.  been  adjudged  "  erroneous  and  very  dangerous,"  and  the 
calling  him  to  office  at  Salem  "  a  great  contempt  of  au- 
thority."   As  a  further  token  of  displeasure,  the  petition 
of  Salem  for  the  grant  of  a  piece  of  land,  claimed  as  ap- 
pertaining to  that  town,  was  refused.      Instead  of  quietly 
submitting  to  this  refusal,  Williams  and  the  Salem  church 
addressed  a  letter  to  the  other  churches,  calling  on  them 
to  exercise  church  discipline  upon  magistrates  who  had 
consented  to  such  a  piece  of  injustice.      This  letter  the 
magistrates  denounced  as  seditious ;  they  denied  any  ac- 
countability in  their  political  character  to  the  particular 
churches  to  which  they  belonged;  they  claimed,  rather, 
at  least  in  conjunction  with  the  deputies  and  the  elders, 
a  controlling  power  over  each  particular  church. 
Sept.         When  the  General  Court  met,  Endicott  "  made  a  pro- 
testation," justifying  the  offensive  letter,   for  which  he 
was  committed.     But  he  acknowledged  his  error  the  same 
day,  and  was  discharged.     The  Salem  deputies  were  re- 
fused seats  in  the  court,  and  were  sent  home  "  to  bring 
satisfaction  for  that  letter,"  or  else  "  the  arguments  and 
names"  of  those  who  would  defend  it.      The  church  at 
Salem  began  to  falter ;   but  Williams,  nothing  daunted, 
declared  his  intention,  if  they  would  not  separate  from 
"  the  anti-Christian  churches  in  the  bay,"  to  separate 
from  them.     This  threat  of  schism  filled  up  the  measure 
Oct.     of  his  offenses.     At  an  adjourned  session  of  the  General 
Court  he  was  again  "  convented" — all  the  ministers  in 
the  bay  being  present — and  charged  with  the  said  two 
letters.     He  justified  both,  and  maintained  all  his  opin- 
ions.    Being  offered  further  conference,  and  a  month  to 
prepare  for  it,  he  chose  to  dispute  on  the  spot.     Hooker 
was  appointed  to  dispute  with  him,  but  could  not  reduce 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  I.      229 

him  from  any  of  his  errors.      So  the  next  morning  the  CHAPTER 

...           IX- 
court  sentenced  him  to  depart  out  of  the  jurisdiction 

within  six  weeks,  all  the  ministers,  save  one,  approving  1635, 
the  sentence.  Who  the  dissentient  was  does  not  appear. 
As  winter  was  so  close  at  hand,  the  banished  Williams 
obtained  leave  to  remain  till  spring.  Being  called  in  ques- 
tion by  his  own  frightened  church,  he  renounced  their 
communion,  and  held  a  separate  assembly  of  a  few  faith- 
ful adherents  at  his  own  house.  He  even  refused  to  allow 
his  wife  to  join  him  in  any  acts  of  worship  because  she 
adhered  to  the  Salem  church. 

Pending  these  proceedings,  three  commissioners  arrived 
at  Boston  on  behalf  of  the  lords  proprietors  of  Connecti- 
cut. They  were  John  Winthrop  the  younger,  on  his  re- 
turn from  a  visit  to  England ;  his  father-in-law,  Hugh  Pe- 
ters, lately  minister  of  an  English  refugee  congregation  at 
the  Hague ;  and  Henry  Vane,  a  young  man  of  twenty- 
three,  son  of  one  of  the  king's  principal  ministers,  but  him- 
self an  ardent  and  enthusiastic  Puritan.  These  commis- 
sioners brought  instructions  to  take  possession  of  the  mouth 
of  Connecticut  River,  and  to  fortify  it ;  for  which  purpose 
they  were  furnished  with  the  necessary  means.  Already, 
before  their  arrival,  an  extensive  scheme  of  emigration 
had  been  matured  in  Massachusetts.  Haynes,  the  gov- 
ernor, Hooker  and  Stone,  ministers  of  Newtown,  and 
Warham,  minister  of  Dorchester,  with  almost  the  entire 
churches  of  those  two  towns,  had  resolved  to  transfer 
themselves,  with  their  town  and  church  organizations,  to 
the  banks  of  the  Connecticut.  It  was  agreed  with  the 
commissioners  that,  in  case  the  lords  proprietors  of  Con- 
necticut should  remove  to  New  England,  room  should  be 
found  for  them  on  the  river ;  the  Massachusetts  emigrants 
to  sell  out,  and,  if  necessary,  to  seek  some  other  place. 

Several  families  from  Newtown,  with  others  from  Dor-     Oct. 


230  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 

CHAPTER  Chester,  the  van  of  this  emigration,  led  by  the  disappoint- 
_!___  ed  Lucllow,  and  driving  their  cattle  before  them,  thread- 
1635.  ed  the  pathless  forests,  guided  by  the  compass,  and,  after 
an  arduous  journey  of  fourteen  days,  reached  the  Con- 
Nov.     necticut  at  the  Plymouth  trading  house.     The  commis- 
sioners sent  a  party  by  water  from  Boston,  and  Fort 
Saybrook  was  commenced  at  the  river's  mouth,  thus 
anticipating  the   Dutch  of  Manhattan,  who  were  just 
about  taking  possession  of  it,  as  a  support  to  their  fort 
of  Good  Hope,  up  the  river,  situate  just  below  the  Plym- 
outh trading  house.     The  party  at  Saybrook  was  soon 
joined  by  Gardiner,  an  engineer  sent  from  England  by 
the  lords  proprietors,  with  a  small  vessel  and  a  supply  of 
provisions. 

The  winter  set  in  early,  and  with  great  severity ;  the 
river  was  soon  frozen,  and  the  Massachusetts  emigrants 
were  thus  disappointed  in  the  expected  arrival  of  a  ves- 
sel from  Boston  with  provisions  and  supplies.  Some, 
with  no  small  difficulty  and  hazard,  retraced  their  steps 
through  the  snowy  woods ;  others  descended  on  the  ice 
to  Fort  Saybrook,  and  returned  to  Boston  by  water. 
The  few  who  remained  through  the  winter  hardly  kept 
themselves  alive.  Most  of  the  cattle  perished  ;  and  this 
heavy  loss  seemed  to  the  elder  Winthrop  and  other  op- 
posers  of  the  emigration  something  very  like  a  judgment. 
During  the  winter  a  rumor  began  to  spread  that  the 
banished  Williams  intended  to  establish  a  new  settle- 
ment out  of  the  limits  -of  the  Massachusetts  patent. 
Should  this  project  be  carried  out,  the  magistrates  feared 
"  the  infection  would  easily  spread,"  many  persons  being 
very  much  carried  away  "  with  apprehension  of  his  god- 
liness." To  prevent  such  an  untoward  result,  it  was 
resolved  to  arrest  Williams  and  to  send  him  prisoner  to 
England.  A  warrant  was  issued,  and  Captain  Under- 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  I.      £31 

hill  was  dispatched  with  fourteen  men  to  execute  it ;  but  CHAPTER 

Williams  had  warning,  and  was  gone.     In  the  midst  of 

that  severe  winter  he  wandered  for  fourteen  weeks  in  1635. 
the  woods  without  a  guide,  with  no  settled  lodging,  and 
with  scanty  food.  He  found  refuge  at  last,  and  hospi- 
tality, from  Massasoit,  head  chief  of  the  Wampanoags, 
whom  he  had  known  while  at  Plymouth ;  and  presently, 
under  a  grant  from  that  chief,  he  commenced  a  little  1636. 
plantation  at  Seekonk,  on  the  east  side  of  Pawtucket  or 
Narraganset  River,  just  within  the  limits  of  the  Plym- 
outh patent.  He  still  had  friends  in  that  colony ;  Brad- 
ford esteemed  him  a  man  "  godly  and  zealous,  having 
many  precious  parts,  though  very  unsettled  in  judg- 
ments ;"  but  the  influence  of  Massachusetts  was  felt 
there ;  and  Winslow,  who,  since  his  return  from  En- 
gland, had  been  elected  Governor  of  Plymouth,  sent 
to  Williams,  claiming  Seekonk,  and  suggesting  his  re- 
moval beyond  that  jurisdiction.  Thus  advised,  he  cross- 
ed the  Pawtucket,  and,  with  five  companions,  established 
an  independent  community  at  the  head  of  Narraganset 
Bay,  beyond  the  territory  either  of  Massachusetts  or 
Plymouth,  in  the  midst  of  powerful  Indian  tribes,  and 
with  little  hope  of  sympathy  or  succor  on  the  part  of  ei- 
ther of  those  colonies.  A  grant  of  the  land  was  obtain- 
ed from  Canonicus,  head  sachem  of  the  Narragansets ; 
and  Williams  named  the  settlement  PROVIDENCE,  in  com- 
memoration of  "  God's  merciful  providence  to  him  in  his 
distress." 

Williams,  however,  was  not  the  first  settler  within 
the  present  limits  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island.  Black- 
stone,  the  "  old  planter,"  the  first  white  inhabitant  of 
the  peninsula  of  Boston,  had  removed,  a  year  or  two  be- 
fore, to  the  same  Pawtucket  River,  but  higher  up,  where 
the  stream  still  bears  his  name.  He  had  received  from 


232  HISTORY   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  town  of  Boston,  under  the  established  regulation  on 

IX 

'  that  subject,  his  grant  of  fifty  acres.  Like  Maverick  and 
1636.  some  other  of  the  old  planters,  though  no  church  mem- 
ber, he  had  been  admitted  a  freeman  of  the  company ; 
but  he  sold  his  land,  bought  cattle,  and  removed.  He 
left  England  because  he  could  not  endure  the  lords 
bishops,  and  he  liked  the  "  lords  brethren"  just  as  little. 
Such  was  his  account  of  the  matter ;  yet  he  had  no 
sympathy  with  Williams,  and  continued  to  acknowledge 
the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts. 

Not  discouraged  by  the  hardships  of  the  past  winter 
nor  the  prognostications  of  opposers,  the  emigration  to 
Connecticut  was  still  persevered  in.  Early  in  the  spring, 
March.  Hooker  and  Stone,  with  the  principal  part  of  their  con- 
gregation, having  sold  out  their  improvements  at  New- 
town  to  a  company  just  arrived  from  England,  traveled 
through  the  woods  on  Ludlow's  track,  driving  their  cat- 
tle before  them.  They  founded  the  town  of  Hartford. 
The  Dorchester  people,  who  were  presently  joined  by 
Warham.  their  surviving  minister,  settled  a  little  above, 
at  Windsor.  The  men  of  Plymouth,  chagrined  at  see- 
ing possession  thus  taken  of  a  territory  which  they  had 
been  the  first  to  occupy — an  enterprise  in  which  Massa- 
chusetts had  declined  to  unite — demanded  of  the  emi- 
grants compensation  for  their  trading  house  and  the  lands 
about  it,  which  they  had  bought  of  the  Indians  ;  and  ul- 
timately they  received  a  partial  indemnification.  A 
party  of  emigrants  from  Watertown  fixed  themselves  at 
Wethersfield,  just  below  Hartford.  A  fourth  emigrant 
party  from  Roxbury,  led  by  Pynchon,  established  the,m- 
selves  some  twenty  miles  higher  up  the  river,  at  Spring-- 
field. The  emigrants  took  with  them  a  commission  of 
government,  the  joint  act  of  the  Massachusetts  General 
Court  and  of  the  commissioners  representing  the  lords 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  I.      £33 

proprietors  of  Connecticut.     The  places  which  they  va-  CHAPTER 

cated  were  filled  up  at  once  by  new  comers,  and  new 

churches  were  organized  at  Newtown  and  Dorchester,  1636. 
the  one  under  "  the  holy,  heavenly,  sweet,  affecting,  and 
soul-ravishing"  Shepard,  the  other  under  Mather,  a  name 
which  his  son  and  grandson  made  distinguished. 

About  the  time  of  this  migration  the  government  of 
Massachusetts  was  brought  nearly  into  the  shape  in  which 
it  remained  for  the  next  fifty  years.  The  regular  ses- 
sions of  the  General  Court  were  reduced  to  two  in  a  year  ; 
one  to  follow  the  Court  of  Elections,  the  other  in  the 
autumn.  The  deputies  were  limited  to  two  for  the 
larger  towns,  and  one  for  the  smaller,  chosen  by  ballot, 
at  first,  for  each  separate  court,  but  afterward  for  a  year. 
They  were  not  required  to  be  residents  of  the  towns  for 
which  they  sat,  though  usually  they  were  so,  but  might 
be  chosen  from  the  colony  at  large.  The  governor  and 
assistants,  who  had  all  along  acted  as  a  court  of  justice, 
were  required  to  hold  four  great  quarter  courts  yearly,  at 
Boston,  for  the  trial  of  more  considerable  cases.  Smaller 
cases  were  to  be  disposed  of  by  inferior  courts,  composed 
of  five  judges,  of  whom  one  at  least  was  to  be  an  assist- 
ant, the  others  to  be  selected  by  the  General  Court  from 
a  nomination  made  by  the  several  towns ;  but  only  the 
assistants  were  to  have  authority  to  issue  process.  These 
inferior  courts  were  to  be  held  quarterly  at  Ipswich,  Sa- 
lem, Newtown,  and  Boston — the  rudiments  of  a  division 
into  counties.  An  appeal  lay  from  their  decision  to  the 
quarter  courts,  and  thence  to  the  General  Court. 

As  a  step  toward  meeting  the  views  of  those  "  persons 
of  quality"  desirous,  on  account  of  the  disastrous  state 
of  political  affairs  in  England,  to  remove  to  America, 
it  was  resolved  to  establish  a  standing  council  for  life, 
of  which  the  governor  for  the  time  being  was  to  be 


HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  president.  To  the  propositions  heretofore  mentioned, 
brought  out  by  Humphrey,  a  detailed  answer  was  now 

1636.  returned.  It  had  been  suggested  in,  those  propositions 
that  the  Commonwealth  should  consist  of  two  ranks : 
"  hereditary  gentlemen,"  to  sit  in  their  own  right  as  an 
upper  house  of  legislation,  and  "  freeholders,"  to  be  rep- 
resented by  their  deputies  in  a  lower  house.  To  this 
close  imitation  of  the  English  Constitution  there  was  no 
objection,  so  far  as  related  to  the  two  ranks,  at  least  on 
the  part  of  the  magistrates  and  elders,  who  readily  ac- 
knowledged the  propriety  of  such  a  distinction  "  from  the 
light  of  nature  and  Scripture."  But  the  plan  of  heredi- 
tary legislators,  and  the  proposal  to  admit  all  freeholders 
to  the  rights  of  citizenship,  were  irreconcilable  with  that 
theocratic  scheme  to  which  the  Massachusetts  leaders 
were  so  zealously  attached.  In  a  letter  which  Cotton 
wrote  on  this  occasion  to  Lord  Say,  democracy  is  de- 
nounced as  "  not  a  fit  government  either  for  church  or 
state."  "  If  the  people  are  governors,  who  shall  be  gov- 
erned ?"  He  admits  that  monarchy  and  aristocracy 
are  "  approved  and  directed  in  Scripture,"  "  but  only 
as  a  theocracy  is  set  up  in  both."  It  was  hoped  to  sat- 
isfy the  aristocratic  predilections  of  the  proposed  immi- 
grants by  establishing  a  magistracy  for  life  ;  but  for  the 
church  members  to  abandon  the  theocratic  principle,  and 
to  yield  their  monopoly  of  power  by  admitting  all  free- 
holders to  the  rights  of  freemen,  was  not  to  be  thought 
of.  The  existing  system  was  even  strengthened  by  an 
enactment  that  no  new  church  should  be  gathered  with- 
out the  express  sanction  of  the  magistrates  and  elders. 

May  25.  At  the  ensuing  Court  of  Elections,  Winthrop  and  Dud- 
ley were  chosen  members  of  the  newly-established  Stand- 
ing Council  for  Life  ;  and  to  that  council  were  presently 
transferred  the  extensive  powers  of  the  military  commis- 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  I.      £35 

sion.  In  the  choice  of  governor,  the  rotation  principle  CHAPTER 
was  still  followed  up  by  electing  the  youthful  Henry  _LL_ 
Vane;  and,  "  because  he  was  son  and  heir  to  a  privy  1636. 
counselor  in  England,"  the  ships  in  the  harbor,  fifteen  in 
number,  lately  arrived  with  passengers  and  goods,  con- 
gratulated his  election  by  a  volley  of  great  guns.  But 
the  now  governor  soon  found  himself  in  trouble  with  these 
same  complimentary  shipmasters.  They  readily  assent- 
ed, indeed,  to  a  regulation  for  anchoring  below  the  new 
fort,  and  not  coming  up  to  the  town  without  the  govern- 
or's pass  ;  but  the  neglect  of  the. fort  to  display  the  king's 
colors,  laid  aside,  as  we  have  seen,  by  order  of  the  mili- 
tary commissioners,  on  account  of  scruples  about  the  red 
cross,  excited  the  ire  of  the  English  sailors,  who  did  not 
hesitate  to  accuse  the  colonists  of  treason  and  rebellion. 
A  mate  of  one  of  the  ships,  who  had  spoken  freely  upon 
this  subject,  was  arrested  and  compelled  to  sign  a  retrac- 
tion ;  but  the  shipmasters,  intimating  that  they  might 
be  questioned  on  their  return  to  England,  requested  the 
magistrates  to  remove  all  grounds  of  suspicion  by  order- 
ing the  king's  colors  to  be  spread  at  the  fort.  Here  was 
a  dilemma.  All  the  magistrates  were  fully  persuaded 
that  the  cross  was  idolatrous.  In  this  emergency  Vane 
practiced  a  little  dissimulation,  of  which,  indeed,  during 
his  term  of  office,  he  exhibited,  according  to  "Winthrop, 
more  than  one  instance.  He  pretended  that  he  had  no 
colors.  But  the  shipmasters  very  promptly  offered  to 
lend.  Driven  thus  into  a  corner,  after  consultation  with 
the  elders,  Vane,  Dudley,  and  a  majority  of  the  magis- 
trates so  far  compromised  matters  with  their  consciences 
as  to  accept  the  proffered  flag.  Since  the  fort  was  the 
king's — a  proposition  which,  on  some  other  occasions,  they 
might  not  have  been  so  ready  to  admit — the  king's  col- 
ors, they  thought,  might  be  spread  there,  at  the  king's 


236  HISTORY    OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  own  personal  peril — an  ingenious  piece  of  casuistry,  from 

whinhj  however,  Winthrop  and  others  dissented. 
1636.  The  alarm  of  interference  from  England  had  partially 
subsided ;  but  the  colony,  under  Vane's  administration, 
became  involved  in  new  troubles — a  violent  internal  con- 
troversy, and  a  dangerous  Indian  war.  The  most  power- 
ful native  tribes  of  New  England  were  concentrated  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Narraganset  Bay.  We  have  already 
had  occasion  to  mention  the  Wampanoags  or  Pocanokets, 
on  the  east  side  of  that  bay,  within  the  limits  of  the 
Plymouth  patent;  also  the  Narragansets,  a  more  pow- 
erful confederacy,  on  the  west  side.  Still  more  numer- 
ous and  more  powerful  were  the  Pequods,  whose  chief 
seats  were  on  or  near  Pequod  River,  now  the  Thames, 
but  whose  authority  extended  over  twenty-six  petty  tribes, 
along  both  shores  of  the  Sound  to  Connecticut  River,  and 
even  beyond  it,  almost  or  quite  to  the  Hudson.  In  what 
is  now  the  northeast  corner  of  the  State  of  Connecticut 
dwelt  a  smaller  tribe,  the  enemies,  perhaps  the  revolted 
subjects  of  the  Pequods,  known  to  the  colonists  as  Mohe 
gans — an  appropriation  of  a  general  name  properly  in- 
cluding all  the  Indians  along  the  shores  of  Long  Island 
Sound  as  far  west  as  the  Hudson,  and  even  the  tribes 
beyond  that  river,  known  afterward  to  the  English  as 
the  Delawares.  The  Indians  about  Massachusetts  Bay, 
supposed  to  have  been  formerly  quite  numerous,  had 
almost  died  out  before  the  arrival  of  the  colonists,  and 
the  small-pox  had  since  proved  very  fatal  among  the 
few  that  remained.  Some  tribes  of  no  great  considera- 
tion— the  Nipmucks,  the  Wachusetts,  the  Nashaways — 
dwelt  among  the  interior  hills,  and  others,  known  col- 
lectively to  the  colonists  as  the  River  Indians,  fished  at 
the  falls  of  the  Connecticut,  and  cultivated  little  patches 
of  its  rich  alluvial  meadows.  The  lower  Merrimac,  the 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  I.      237 

Piscataqua,  and  their  branches,  were  occupied  by  the  CHAPTER 

tribes  of  a  considerable  confederacy,  that  of  Penacook  or 

Pawtucket,  whose  chief  sachem,  Passaconaway,  was  re-  1636. 
ported  to  be  a  great  magician.  The  interior  of  New 
Hampshire,  and  of  what  is  now  Vermont,  seems  to  have 
been  an  uninhabited  wilderness.  The  tribes  eastward 
of  the  Piscataqua,  known  to  the  English  by  the  general 
name  of  Tarenteens,  and  reputed  to  be  numerous  and 
powerful,  were  distinguished  by  the  rivers  on  which  they 
dwelt.  They  seem  to  have  constituted  two  principal 
confederacies,  those  east  of  the  Kennebec  being  known 
to  the  French  of  Acadie  as  the  Abenakis.  All  the  New 
England  Indians  spoke  substantially  the  same  language, 
the  Algonquin,  in  various  dialects.  From  the  nature  of 
the  country,  they  were  more  stationary  than  some  other 
tribes,  being  fixed  principally  at  the  falls  of  the  rivers. 
They  seem  to  have  entertained  very  decided  ideas  of  the 
hereditary  descent  of  authority,  and  of  personal  devotion 
to  their  chiefs.  What  might  have  been  at  this  time  the 
total  Indian  population  of  New  England,  it  is  not  very 
easy  to  conjecture  ;  but  it  was  certainly  much  less  than 
is  commonly  stated.  Fifteen  or  twenty  thousand  would 
seem  to  be  a  sufficient  allowance  for  the  region  south  of 
the  Piscataqua,  and  as  many  more,  perhaps,  for  the  more 
easterly  district.  The  Pequods,  esteemed  the  most  pow- 
erful tribe  in  New  England,  were  totally  ruined,  as  we 
shall  presently  see,  by  the  destruction  or  capture  of  hardly 
more  than  a  thousand  persons. 

The  provocation  for  this  exterminating  war  was  ex- 
tremely small.  Previous  to  the  Massachusetts  migra- 
tion to  the  Connecticut,  one  Captain  Stone,  the  drunken 
and  dissolute  master  of  a  small  trading  vessel  from  Vir- 
ginia, whom  the  Plymouth  people  charged  with  having 
been  engaged  at  Manhattan  in  a  piratical  plot  to  seize  January. 


238  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  one  of  their  vessels,  having  been  sent  away  from  Boston 

'      with  orders  not  to  return  without  leave,  under  pain  of 

1634.  death,  on  his  way  homeward  to  Virginia  had  entered  the 

January.  Connecticut  River,  where  he  was  cut  off,  with  his  whole 
company,  seven  in  number,  by  a  band  of  Pequods.  There 
were  various  stories,  none  of  them  authentic,  as  to  the 
precise  manner  of  his  death,  but  the  Pequods  insisted 
that  he  had  been  the  aggressor — a  thing  in  itself  suffi- 
ciently probable.  As  Stone  belonged  to  Virginia,  the 
magistrates  of  Massachusetts  wrote  to  Governor  Harvey 
to  move  him  to  stir  in  the  matter.  Van  Cuyler,  the 
Dutch  commissary  at  Fort  Good  Hope,  in  fact  revenged 
Stone's  death  by  the  execution  of  a  sachem  and  several 
others.  This  offended  the  Pequods,  who  renounced  any 
Nov.  further  traffic  with  the  Dutch,  and  sent  messengers  to 
Boston  desiring  an  intercourse  of  trade,  and  assistance 
to  settle  their  pending  difficulties  with  the  Narragan- 
sets,  who  intervened  between  them  and  the  English  set- 
tlements. They  even  promised  to  give  up  —  at  least 
so  the  magistrates  understood  them — the  only  two  sur- 
vivors, as  they  alleged,  of  those  concerned  in  the  death 
of  Stone.  These  offers  were  accepted ;  for  the  conven- 
ience of  this  traffic,  a  peace  was  negotiated  between  the 
Pequods  and  the  Narragansets,  and  a  vessel  was  pres 
ently  sent  to  open  a  trade.  But  this  traffic  disappointed 
the  adventurers ;  nor  were  the  promised  culprits  given 
up.  The  Pequods,  according  to  the  Indian  custom,  ten- 
dered, instead,  a  present  of  furs  and  wampum.  But  this 
was  refused,  the  colonists  seeming  to  think  themselves 
under  a  religious  obligation  to  avenge  blood  with  blood. 
1636.  Thus  matters  remained  for  a  year  or  two,  when  the 
July-  crew  of  a  small  bark,  returning  from  Connecticut,  saw 
close  to  Block  Island  a  pinnace  at  anchor,  and  full  of  In- 
dians. This  pinnace  was  recognized  as  belonging  to  Old- 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  I.     £39 

ham,  the  Indian  trader,  the  old  settler  at  Nantasket,  and  CHAPTER 
explorer  of  the  Connecticut.  Conjecturing  that  some-  ' 
thing  must  be  wrong,  the  bark  approached  the  pinnace  and  1636. 
hailed,  whereupon  the  Indians  on  board  slipped  the  cable 
and  made  sail.  The  bark  gave  chase,  and  soon  overtook 
the  pinnace ;  some  of  the  Indians  jumped  overboard  in 
their  fright,  and  were  drowned ;  several  were  killed,  and 
one  was  made  prisoner.  The  dead  body  of  Oldham  was 
found  on  board,  covered  with  an  old  seine.  This  murder, 
as  appeared  from  the  testimony  of  the  prisoner,  who  was 
presently  sentenced  by  the  Massachusetts  magistrates  to 
be  a  slave  for  life,  was  committed  at  the  instigation  of 
some  Narraganset  chiefs,  upon  whom  Block  Island  was 
dependent,  in  revenge  for  the  trade  which  Oldham  had 
commenced  under  the  late  treaty  with  the  Pequods,  their 
enemies.  Indeed,  all  the  Narraganset  chiefs,  except  the 
head  sachem,  Canonicus,  and  his  nephew  and  colleague, 
Miantonimoh,  were  believed  to  have  had  a  hand  in  this 
matter,  especially  the  chieftain  of  the  Niantics,  a  branch 
of  the  Narragansets,  inhabiting  the  continent  opposite 
Block  Island. 

Canonicus,  in  great  alarm,  sent  to  his  friend  and  neigh- 
bor, Roger  Williams,  by  whose  aid  he  wrote  a  letter  to 
the  Massachusetts  magistrates,  expressing  his  grief  at 
what  had  happened,  and  stating  that  Miantonimoh  had 
sailed  already  with  seventeen  canoes  and  two  hundred 
warriors  to  punish  the  Block  Islanders.  With  this  letter 
were  sent  two  Indians,  late  sailors  on  board  Oldham's 
pinnace,  and  presently  after  two  English  boys,  the  re- 
mainder of  his  crew.  In  the  recapture  of  Oldham's  pin- 
nace eleven  Indians  had  been  killed,  several  of  them 
chiefs  ;  and  that,  with  the  restoration  of  the  crew,  seems 
to  have  been  esteemed  by  Canonicus  a  sufficient  atone- 
ment for  Oldham's  death.  But  the  magistrates  and  min- 


£40  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  isters  of  Massachusetts,  assembled  to  take  this  matter 

IX 

'  into  consideration,  thought  otherwise.  Volunteers  were 
1636.  called  for ;  and  four  companies,  ninety  men  in  all,  com- 
manded  by  Endicott,  whose  submissiveness  in  Will- 
iams's  affair  had  restored  him  to  favor,  were  embarked 
in  three  pinnaces,  with  orders  to  put  to  death  all  the 
men  of  Block  Island,  and  to  make  the  women  and  chil- 
dren prisoners.  The  old  affair  of  the  death  of  Stone  was 
now  also  called  to  mind,  though  the  murder  of  Oldham 
had  no  connection  with  it,  except  in  some  distant  simi- 
larity of  circumstances.  Endicott  was  instructed,  on  his 
return  from  Block  Island,  to  go  to  the  Pequods,  and  to 
demand  of  them  the  murderers  of  Stone,  and  a  thousand 
fathoms  of  wampum  for  damages — equivalent  to  from 
three  to  five  thousand  dollars — also,  some  of  their  chil- 
dren as  hostages ;  and,  if  they  refused,  to  employ  force. 

The  Block  Islanders  fled  inland,  hid  themselves,  and 
escaped ;  but  Endicott  burned  their  wigwams,  staved 
their  canoes,  and  destroyed  their  standing  corn.  He 
then  sailed  to  Fort  Saybrook,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Connec- 
ticut, and  marched  thence  to  Pequod  River.  After  some 
parley,  the  Indians  refused  his  demands,  when  he  burned 
their  village,  and  killed  one  of  their  warriors.  Marching 
back  to  Connecticut  River,  he  inflicted  like  vengeance  on 
the  Pequod  village  there,  whence  he  returned  to  Boston, 
after  a  three  weeks'  absence,  and  without  the  loss  of  a  man. 

The  Pequods,  enraged  at  what  they  esteemed  a  treach- 
erous and  unprovoked  attack,  lurked  about  Fort  Say- 
brook,  killed  or  took  several  persons,  and  did  considera- 
ble mischief.  They  sent,  also,  to  the  Narragansets  to 
engage  their  alliance  against  the  colonists,  whom  they 
represented  as  the  common  enemy  of  all  the  Indians. 
Williams,  informed  of  this  negotiation,  sent  word  of  it  to 
the  Massachusetts  magistrates,  and,  at  their  request,  he 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  I.      241 

visited  Canonicus,  to  dissuade  him  from  joining  the  Pe-  CHAPTER 
quods.      This  mission  was  not  without  danger.      In  the          ' 
wigwam  of  Canonicus.  Williams  encountered  the  Pequod  1636, 
messengers,  full  of  rage  and  fury.      He  succeeded,  how- 
ever, in  his  object,  and  Miantonimoh  was  induced  to  visit  October. 
Boston,  where,  being  received  with  much  ceremony  by 
the  governor  and  magistrates,  he  agreed  to  act  with  them 
as  a  faithful  ally.      Canonicus  thought  it  would  be  nec- 
essary to  attack  the  Pequods  with  a  very  large  force ; 
but  he  recommended,  as  a  thing  likely  to  be  agreeable 
to  all  the  Indians — so  Williams   informs  us — that  the 
women  and  children  should  be  spared,  a  humane  piece 
of  advice  which  received  in  the  end  but  little  attention. 

The  policy  of  this  war,  or,  at  least,  the  wisdom  of  En- 
dicott's  conduct,  was  not  universally  conceded.  A  letter 
from  Plymouth  reproached  the  Massachusetts  magistrates 
with  the  dangers  likely  to  arise  from  so  inefficient  an  at- 
tack upon  the  Pequods.  Gardiner,  the  commandant  at 
Fort  Say  brook,  who  lost  several  men  during  the  winter, 
was  equally  dissatisfied.  The  new  settlers  up  the  Con- 
necticut complained  bitterly  of  the  dangers  to  which  they 
were  exposed.  Sequeen,  the  same  Indian  chief  at  whose 
invitation  the  Plymouth  people  had  first  established  a 
trading  house  on  Connecticut  River,  had  granted  land  to 
the  planters  at  Wethersfield  on  condition  that  he  might 
settle  near  them,  and  be  protected ;  but  when  he  came 
and  built  his  wigwam,  they  had  driven  him  away.  He 
took  this  opportunity  for  revenge  by  calling  in  the  Pe- 
quods, who  attacked  the  town,  and  killed  nine  of  the  in- 
habitants. The  whole  number  killed  by  the  Pequods 
during  the  winter  was  about  thirty. 

A  special  session  of  the  General  Court  of  Massachu- 
setts organized  the  militia  into  three  regiments  ;  the  mag- 
istrates to  appoint  the  field  officers,  called  sergeant  ma- 

I.  Q. 


242       HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  jors,  and  to  select  the  captains  and  lieutenants  out  of  a 
'  nomination  to  be  made  oy  the  companies  respectively. 
1636.  Watches  were  ordered  to  be  kept,  and  travelers  were  to 
go  armed. 

The  pending  Indian  hostilities  were  not,  however,  the 
sole  subject  of  interest,  the  attention  of  this  court  being 
still  more  seriously  occupied  by  some  new  religious  dis- 
sensions lately  broken  out.  It  was  very  difficult  to  rec- 
oncile the  doctrine  of  the  special  personal  enlightenment  of 
each  believer  with  that  strict  unity  of  faith  and  discipline 
esteemed  in  Massachusetts  no  less  essential  than  at  Rome. 
Already  had  several  of  the  churches  been  sorely  rent  by 
local  controversies — accidents  to  which  they  were  ever 
exceedingly  liable,  and  which  it  cost  the  magistrates  and 
ministers  much  pains  to  compose.  A  still  more  serious 
schism  now  threatened  to  divide  the  whole  colony  into 
two  bitter  and  hostile  religious  factions. 

In  power,  their  career  of  opposition  and  reform  finish- 
ed, heads  and  fathers  of  a  church  and  state  of  their  own, 
the  founders  of  the  Massachusetts  polity  had  lost  that 
position  which  gave  its  chief  glory  to  the  Puritan  name. 
The  established  authorities  of  the  new  theocracy,  assum- 
ing the  power  and  actuated  by  the  spirit  of  the  English 
bishops  and  the  hated  Court  of  High  Commission,  them- 
selves pursued,  without  mercy  or  remorse,  as  heretics  and 
schismatics,  the  very  persons  by  whom  their  own  late 
position  was  occupied;  for,  however  satisfied  the  New 
England  fathers  might  have  been  with  the  system  they 
had  established,  the  spirit  of  opposition  to  forms  and  au- 
thority was  by  no  means  extinct.  The  new  corners,  now 
so  numerous,  brought  with  them  from  England  new  no- 
tions, to  which  the  fermentation  of  opinion  in  that  coun- 
try was  every  day  giving  rise.  Among  these  new  com- 
ers was  Mrs.  Anne  Hutchinson,  a  woman  of  talent,  ready 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  I.      343 

eloquence,  and  great  self-reliance ;   an  acute  disputant,  CHAPTER 

but,  like  most  of  the  leading  colonists,  very  much  under 

the  influence  of  religious  enthusiasm,  not  unmixed,  as  1637. 
often  happens,  with  a  little  vanity  and  a  great  love  of 
power.  Though  occupied  with  the  cares  of  a  numer- 
ous family,  she  presently  assumed  to  hold  meetings  in 
Boston,  at  which,  under  pretense  of  repeating  sermons, 
she  soon  began  to  criticise  them,  assuming  to  instruct 
the  sisters  of  the  Church  in  the  most  recondite  doctrines 
of  theology.  She  maintained  with  energy  that  leading 
tenet  of  the  Reformation,  justification  by  faith  alone — 
an  involuntary  faith,  as,  indeed,  all  faith  must  be,  God's 
free  grace  to  the  elect.  It  was  this  faith,  she  alleged, 
not  the  vain  repetition  of  acts  of  devotion,  nor  the  vainer 
performance  of  acts  of  morality,  that  made  the  religious 
man — a  doctrine,  indeed,  which  the  fathers  of  Massa- 
chusetts were  very  forward  to  admit.  But  if  so,  what 
was  the  value,  what  the  necessity  or  use,  of  that  formal 
and  protracted  worship,  that  system  of  life  so  ascetic  and 
austere,  to  which  those  fathers  ascribed  so  much  import- 
ance ?  This  question,  rather  covertly  insinuated  than 
openly  asked,  was  the  basis  of  what  was  denounced  in 
New  England  as  Antinomianism — a  heresy  revived  in 
our  own  day  under  another  form — the  more  detestable, 
because  it  was  so  very  difficult  to  meet.  In  the  mouth 
of  Luther  that  same  question  had  availed  to  overthrow 
the  ancient  and  gorgeous  fabric  of  papal  superstition  and 
Roman  ceremonial ;  how,  then,  could  the  new,  frail,  ill- 
compacted  system  of  New  England  Congregationalism 
expect  to  stand  against  it  ? 

This  doctrine  struck,  in  fact,  a  most  deadly  blow  at 
the  self-esteem  and  the  influence  of  the  present  leaders. 
Their  "  sanctification,"  Mrs.  Hutchinson  alleged,  on  which 
they  so  much  prided  themselves,  their  sanctimonious  car- 


244  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  riage  and  austere  lives,  furnished  no  evidence  whatever 
of  their  "  justification,"  their  change  of  heart,  and  ac- 
1637.  ceptance  with  God.  The  only  evidence  of  that  was  an 
internal  revelation,  an  assurance,  an  intimate  conscious- 
ness on  the  part  of  the  believer  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
dwelt  in  him,  and  was  personally  united  to  him.  Here 
again  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  opponents  were  very  much  em- 
barrassed. They  held,  also,  to  internal  convictions  and 
supernatural  assurances ;  but  all  such  assurances  must 
be  false  and  deceptive,  they  alleged,  unless  accompanied 
by  outward  evidences  of  sanctity  in  life  and  conversa- 
tion ;  and  they  denied  the  pretended  personal  union  with 
the  Holy  Ghost  as  no  better  than  blasphemy. 

Mrs.  Hutchinson  had  a  friend  in  Vane,  the  young 
governor,  a  man  of  kindred  spirit,  who  delighted  in  en- 
thusiastic subtleties.  She  was  also  supported  by  Wheel- 
wright, her  brother-in-law,  a  minister  lately  arrived,  and 
much  in  favor  with  the  Boston  Church.  Even  the  in- 
fluential Cotton,  in  whose  house  Vane  lodged,  seemed  to 
lean  to  her  opinions,  while  she  carried  with  her  a  de- 
cided majority  of  the  Boston  Church.  But  in  Winthrop 
and  Wilson,  and  in  most  of  the  other  magistrates  and 
ministers,  she  found  stern  and  active  opponents,  very 
cautious,  indeed,  how  they  impugned  the  doctrines  of  faith 
and  free  grace,  but  zealous  in  upholding  the  value,  in- 
deed, the  absolute  necessity  of  that  system  of  worship  and 
austere  self-denial  which  they  had  come  so  far,  and  had 
labored  so  hard  to  establish,  and  which  they  commended 
and  Mrs.  Hutchinson  derided,  under  the  name  of  "  good 
works." 

Discussions  had  already  occurred  on  this  subject,  in 
which  the  governor,  two  assistants,  and  two  ministers 
had  been  found  on  the  side  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  who 
presently  distinguished  the  ministers  and  church  mem- 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  I.      24O 

bers,  a  few  of  them,  as  "  under  a  covenant  of  grace,"  CHAPTER 

and  the  rest,  including  most  of  the  old  leaders,  as  "  un- 

der  a  covenant  of  works."  This  invidious  distinction  was  1637. 
maintained,  at  least  to  a  certain  extent,  in  a  sermon 
preached  by  Wheelwright  at  a  special  fast  ordered  by  Feb 
the  General  Court  on  account  of  the  Indian  war  and  the 
religious  differences — a  sermon  which  gave  such  offense 
that  Wheelwright  was  presently  summoned  before  the 
magistrates  on  a  charge  of  sedition.  The  whole  colony 
was  torn  with  the  controversy,  and  the  members  of  the 
Boston  Church,  "  frequenting  the  lectures  of  other  minis- 
ters, did  make  much  disturbance  by  public  questions  and 
objections  to  their  doctrines." 

At  an  adjourned  session  of  the  General  Court,  not-  MarcU 
withstanding  several  petitions  in  his  favor,  one,  especially, 
signed  by  many  principal  inhabitants  of  Boston,  Wheel- 
wright was  found  guilty  of  sedition,  and  also  of  contempt, 
"  for  that  the  court  had  appointed  the  fast  as  a  means 
of  reconciliation  of  differences,  and  he  purposely  set  him- 
self to  kindle  them."  A  protest  was  offered  by  the  gov- 
ernor and  others,  but  the  court  refused  to  receive  it.  It 
was  also  resolved  that  the  Court  of  Elections  and  the 
next  General  Court  should  be  holden,  not  at  Boston,  but 
at  Newtown,  out  of  the  immediate  sphere  of  Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson's  influence.  Till  then,  the  sentence  of  Wheelwright 
was  postponed. 

It  had  been  ordered,  in  consequence,  probably,  of  the 
Indian  war,  that  all  freemen  should  come  armed  to  the 
election,  and  thus  a  body  of  armed  men  was  assembled 
at  Newtown,  inflamed  by  enthusiasm,  and  excited  to 
the  highest  pitch  by  theological  differences.  Wilson,  who 
was  short  of  stature,  mounted  on  a  tree,  and  from  that 
elevation  harangued  the  assembly.  There  was  great 
danger  of  a  tumult  that  day  ;  inflamed  opponents  more 


246  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  than  once  laid  hands  upon  each  other.  The  majority, 
however,  was  sufficiently  decisive  to  prevent  a  resort  to 
1637.  violence.  Winthrop  was  elected  governor,  while  Vane, 
Coddington,  and  Dummer,  supporters  of  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son,  were  left  out  of  the  magistracy.  The  danger  of  such 
scenes  was  prevented  for  the  future  by  a  law,  presently 
passed,  dispensing  with  the  attendance  of  all  the  freemen 
at  the  Court  of  Elections,  and  allowing  them  to  give  their 
votes  in  their  own  towns  for  governor  and  assistants,  and 
to  send  them,  sealed  up,  by  the  hand  of  their  deputies. 

Vane  and  Coddington  were  immediately  chosen  depu- 
ties for  Boston,  that  town  having  delayed  its  choice  till 
after  the  general  election.  Some  alleged  informality  was 
set  up  to  prevent  them  from  taking  their  seats  ;  but  they 
were  immediately  rechosen,  and  this  time  the  court  was 
not  able  to  find  "  how  they  might  reject  them."  The 
Hutchinsonians  were  beaten,  but  not  yet  subdued.  The 
vergers  who  had  walked  before  Vane  to  and  from  meet- 
ing on  the  Lord's  day,  threw  down  their  halberds  and 
refused  to  attend  upon  Winthrop,  "so  as  the  new  gov- 
ernor was  fain  to  use  his  own  servants  to  carry  two  hal- 
berds before  him,  whereas  the  former  governor  had  never 
less  than  four."  In  contempt  of  Winthrop's  gracious 
invitation,  Coddington  and  Vane  refused  to  sit  in  meet- 
ing in  the  magistrates'  seat,  but  went  and  sat  with  the 
deacons ;  and  on  the  fast  day  presently  appointed,  instead 
of  staying  to  hear  themselves  berated  by  Wilson,  they 
went  to  Mount  Wollaston,  and  kept  the  day  with  Wheel- 
wright. Wheelwright's  sentence  was  respited  to  the  next 
court,  while  the  theological  questions  raised  by  Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson  were  referred  to  a  synod  or  conference  of  delegates 
from  the  churches,  summoned  to  take  them  into  consider- 
ation. Divers  writings  were  now  published  about  these 
differences — in  manuscript,  for  as  yet  there  was  no  print- 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  I.      247 

ing  press  in  the  colony — an  "  Apology"  by  the  magis-  CHAPTER 

trates  for  their  condemnation  of  Wheelwright,  a  "  Tract- 

ate"  by  Wheelwright  in  defense  of  his  sermon,  and  an  1637. 
"  Answer"  to  that  sermon  by  the  other  ministers.     Seeing 
how  matters  were  going,  Cotton  bent  to  circumstances, 
explained,  distinguished,  and  prepared  to  yield. 

Resolved  to  prevent  any  accessions  to  their  opponents 
from  abroad,  the  triumphant  party  enacted  a  law,  by 
which  all  new  comers  were  required  to  obtain  a  permit 
from  one  of  the  magistrates  before  they  could  be  allowed 
to  settle  in  Massachusetts  ;  nor  was  any  inhabitant  to 
let  a  house  to  a  new  comer,  or  entertain  him  above  three 
weeks,  without  like  permission.  A  great  outcry  being 
raised  against,  this  law,  Winthrop  put  forth  a  manuscript 
treatise  in  its  defense,  to  which  Vane  replied.  Vane, 
however,  presently  retired  from  the  colony,  to  act  in  En- 
gland on  a  broader  stage.  His  experience  in  America 
was  not,  perhaps,  without  its  effect ;  in  England  he  be- 
came a  leader  of  the  new  party  of  the  Independents,  a 
zealous  opponent  not  of  the  bishops  only,  but  of  that 
Presbyterian  faction  which,  after  the  downfall  of  the 
Roya^st  party,  sought  to  establish  a  religious  despotism 
not  unlike  that  which  existed  in  Massachusetts. 

Orthodoxy  having  thus  triumphed,  attention  was  di- 
rected toward  the  Pequod  war.  The  new  towns  on  the 
Connecticut  had  continued  to  suffer  during  the  winter. 
The  attack  on  Wethersfield  has  been  mentioned  already. 
Fort  Saybrook  was  beleaguered ;  several  colonists  were 
killed,  and  two  young  girls  were  taken  prisoners,  but 
were  presently  redeemed  and  sent  home  by  some  Dutch 
traders.  It  had  been  resolved  in  Massachusetts  to  raise 
a  hundred  and  sixty  men  for  the  war,  and  already  Under- 
hill  had  been  sent,  with  twenty  men,  to  re-enforce  Fort 
Saybrook ;  but,  during  Vane's  administration,  these  prep- 


248  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  arations  had  been  retarded — not  from  any  misgivings  as 

to  the  justice  of  the  war,  but  because  the  army  "was 

1637.  too  much  under  a  covenant  of  works."  The  expedition 
was  now  got  ready,  and,  by  "  a  solemn  public  invocation 
of  the  word  of  God,"  a  leader  was  designated  by  lot  from 
among  three  of  the  magistrates  set  apart  for  that  purpose. 
The  lot  fell  on  Stoughton,  whose  adherence  to  the  ortho- 
dox party  during  the  late  dissensions  had  restored  him  to 
favor,  and  obtained  for  him,  at  the  late  election,  one  of 
the  vacant  magistrates'  seats.  Wilson  was  also  desig- 
nated by  lot  as  chaplain  to  the  expedition.  The  people 
of  Plymouth  agreed  to  furnish  forty -five  men. 

The  decisive  battle,  however,  had  been  already  fought. 
The  Connecticut  towns,  impatient  of  delay,  having  ob- 
tained the  alliance  of  Uncas,  sachem  of  the  Mohegans, 
had  marched,  to  the  number  of  ninety  men,  almost  their 
entire  effective  force,  under  the  command  of  John  Mason, 
bred  a  soldier  in  the  Netherlands,  whom  Hooker,  with 
prayers  and  religious  ceremonies,  solemnly  invested  with 
May  10.  the  staff  of  command.  After  a  night  spent  in  prayer, 
this  little  army,  joined  by  Uncas  with  sixty  Indians,  and 
accompanied  by  Stone,  Hooker's  colleague,  as  chaplain, 
embarked  at  Hartford.  They  were  not  without  great 
doubts  as  to  their  Indian  allies,  but  were  reassured  at 
Fort  Saybrook.  While  Stone  was  praying  "  for  one 
pledge  of  love,  that  may  confirm  us  of  the  fidelity  of  the 
Indians,"  these  allies  came  in  with  five  Pequod  scalps 
and  a  prisoner.  Underhill  joined  with  his  twenty  men, 
and  the  united  forces  proceeded  by  water  to  Narraganset 
May  21.  Bay,  where  they  spent  the  Sunday  in  religious  exercises. 
They  were  further  strengthened  by  Miantonimoh  and 
two  hundred  Narraganset  warriors;  but  the  English  force 
seemed  so  inadequate  that  many  of  the  Narragansets 
became  discouraged  and  returned  home. 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  I.      249 

The  Pequods  were  principally  collected  a  few  miles  CHAPTER 

east  of  Pequod  River,  now  the  Thames,  in  two  forts  or 

villages,  fortified  with  trees  and  brushwood.  After  a  fa-  1637 
tiguing  march  of  two  days,  Mason  reached  one  of  these 
strongholds,  situated  on  a  high  hill,  at  no  great  distance 
from  the  sea-shore.  He  encamped  a  few  hours  to  rest 
his  men,  but  marched  again  before  daybreak,  and  at 
early  dawn  approached  the  fort.  The  Pequods  had  seen  May  26. 
the  vessels  pass  along  the  sea-shore  toward  the  bay  of 
Narraganset,  and,  supposing  the  hostile  forces  afraid  to 
attack  them,  they  had  spent  the  night  in  feasting  and 
dancing,  and  Mason  could  hear  their  shoutings  in  his 
camp.  Toward  morning  they  sunk  into  a  deep  sleep, 
from  which  they  were  roused  by  the  barking  of  their 
dogs,  as  the  colonists,  in  two  parties,  approached  the  fort, 
one  led  by  Mason,  the  other  by  Underbill,  both  of  whom 
have  left  us  narratives  of  the  battle.  The  assailants 
poured  in  a  fire  of  musketry,  and,  after  a  moment's  hes- 
itation, forced  their  way  into  the  fort.  Within  were 
thickly  clustered  wigwams  containing  the  families  of  the 
Indians,  and  what  remained  of  their  winter  stores.  The 
astonished  Pequods  seized  their  weapons  and  fought  with 
desperation  ;  but  what  could  their  clubs  and  arrows  avail 
against  the  muskets  and  plate-armor  of  the  colonists  ? 
Yet  there  was  danger  in  the  great  superiority  of  their 
numbers,  and  Mason,  crying  out  "  we  must  burn  them," 
thrust  a  fire-brand  among  the  mats  with  which  the  wig- 
wams were  covered.  Almost  in  a  moment  the  fort  was 
in  a  blaze.  The  colonists,  "  bereaved  of  pity  and  with- 
out compassion,"  so  Underhill  himself  declares,  kept  up 
the  fight  within  the  fort,  while  their  Indian  allies,  form- 
ing a  circle  around,  struck  down  every  Pequod  who  at- 
tempted to  escape.  No  quarter  was  given,  no  mercy 
was  shown ;  some  hundreds,  not  warriors  only,  but  old 


250  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  men,  women,  and  children,  perished  by  the  weapons  of  the 

colonists,  or  in  the  flames  of  the  burning  fort.      "  Great 

1637.  and  doleful,"  says  Underbill,  "was  the  bloody  sight  to 
the  view  of  young  soldiers,  to  see  so  many  souls  lie  gasp- 
ing on  the  ground,  so  thick  you  could  hardly  pass  along." 
The  fact  that  only  seven  prisoners  were  taken,  while 
Mason  boasts  that  only  seven  others  escaped,  evinces  the 
unrelenting  character  of  this  massacre,  which  was  accom- 
plished with  but  trifling  loss,  only  two  of  the  colonists 
being  killed,  and  sixteen  or  twenty  wounded.  Yet  the 
victors  were  not  without  embarrassments.  The  morn- 
ing was  hot,  there  was  no  water  to  be  had,  and  the  men, 
exhausted  by  their  long  march  the  two  days  before,  the 
weight  of  their  armor,  want  of  sleep,  and  the  sharpness 
of  the  late  action,  must  now  encounter  a  new  body  of 
Pequods  from  the  other  village,  who  had  taken  the  alarm, 
and  were  fast  approaching.  Mason,  with  a  select  party, 
kept  this  new  enemy  at  bay,  and  thus  gave  time  to  the 
main  body  to  push  on  for  Pequod  River,  into  which  some 
vessels  had  just  been  seen  to  enter.  When  the  Indians 
approached  the  hill  where  their  fort  had  stood,  at  sight 
of  their  ruined  habitations  and  slaughtered  companions 
they  burst  out  into  a  transport  of  rage,  stamped  on  the 
ground,  tore  their  hair,  and,  regardless  of  every  thing 
save  revenge,  rushed  furious  in  pursuit.  But  the  dread- 
ed fire-arms  soon  checked  them,  and  Mason  easily  made 
good  his  retreat  to  Pequod  harbor,  now  New  London, 
where  he  found  not  only  his  own  vessels,  but  Captain  Pat- 
rick also,  just  arrived  in  a  bark  from  Boston,  with  forty 
men.  Mason  sent  the  wounded  and  most  of  his  forces 
by  water,  but,  in  consequence  of  Patrick's  refusal  to  lend 
his  ship,  was  obliged  to  march  himself,  with  twenty  men, 
followed  by  Patrick,  to  Fort  Saybrook,  where  his  victory 
was  greeted  by  a  salvo  of  cannon. 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER   CHARLES  I.  251 

In  about  a  fortnight  Stoughton  arrived  at  Saybrook  CHAPTER 

IX. 

with  the  main  body  of  the  Massachusetts  forces.   Mason, 

with  forty  Connecticut  soldiers  and  a  large  body  of  Nar-  1637. 
ragansets,  joined  also  in  pursuing  the  remnants  of  the  June< 
enemy.  The  Pequods  had  abandoned  their  country,  or 
concealed  themselves  in  the  swamps.  One  of  these  for- 
tresses was  attacked  by  night,  and  about  a  hundred  In-  July. 
dians  captured.  The  men,  twenty -two  in  number,  were 
put  to  death ;  thirty  women  and  children  were  given  to 
the  Narraganset  allies ;  some  fifty  others  were  sent  to 
Boston,  and  distributed  as  slaves  among  the  principal 
colonists.  The  flying  Pequods  were  pursued  as  far  as 
Quinapiack,  now  New  Haven.  A  swamp  in  that  neigh- 
borhood, where  a  large  party  had  taken  refuge,  being 
surrounded  and  attacked,  a  parley  was  had,  and  life  was  August, 
offered  to  "all  whose  hands  were  not  in  English  blood." 
About  two  hundred,  old  men,  women,  and  children, 
reluctantly  came  out  and  gave  themselves  up.  Day- 
light was  exhausted  in  this  surrender ;  and  as  night  set 
in,  the  warriors  who  remained  renewed  their  defiances. 
Toward  morning,  favored  by  a  thick  fog,  they  broke 
through  and  escaped.  Many  of  the  surviving  Pequods 
put  themselves  under  the  protection  of  Canonicus  and 
other  Narraganset  chiefs.  Sassacus,  the  head  sachem, 
fled  to  the  Mohawks  ;  but  they  were  instigated  by  their 
allies,  the  Narragansets,  to  put  him  to  death.  His 
scalp  was  sent  to  Boston,  and  many  heads  and  hands  of 
Pequod  warriors  were  also  brought  in  by  the  neighbor- 
ing tribes.  The  adult  male  prisoners  who  remained  in 
the  hands  of  the  colonists  were  sent  to  the  West  Indies 
to  be  sold  into  slavery ;  the  women  and  children  ex- 
perienced a  similar  fate  at  home.  It  was  reckoned  that 
between  eight  and  nine  hundred  of  the  Pequods  had  been 
killed  or  taken.  Such  of  the  survivors  as  had  escaped, 


252  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  forbidden  any  longer  to  call  themselves  Pequods,  were 
distributed  between  the  Narragansets  and  Mohegans, 
1637.  and  subjected  to  an  annual  tribute.  Alike  tribute  was 
imposed,  also,  on  the  inhabitants  of  Block  Island.  The 
colonists  regarded  their  success  as  ample  proof  of  Divine 
approbation,  and  justified  all  they  had  done  to  these 
"  bloody  heathen"  by  abundant  quotations  from  the  Old 
Testament.  Having  referred  to  "  the  wars  of  David," 
Underbill  adds,  "  We  had  sufficient  light  from  the  word 
of  God  for  our  proceedings ;"  and  Mason,  after  some  ex- 
ulting quotations  from  the  Psalms,  concludes :  "  Thus 
the  Lord  was  pleased  to  smite  our  enemies  in  the  hinder 
parts,  and  to  give  us  their  land  for  an  inheritance  I" 
The  Indian  allies  admired  the  courage  of  the  colonists, 
but  they  thought  their  method  of  war  "  too  furious,  and 
to  slay  too  many." 

Some  occurrences  shortly  after  are  sufficient  to  show 
that,  in  their  relations  with  the  Indians,  the  colonists 
were  not  governed  by  mere  passion  and  hatred,  but  by 
systematic  principle*  of  what  they  considered  justice. 
Three  o«t  of  four  runaway  servants,  who  had  robbed 
and  murdered  an  Indian  near  Providence,  after  consulta- 
%  tion  with  the  magistrates  of  Massachusetts,  were  tried 
at  Plymouth,  found  guilty,  and  hanged.  The  fourth 
escaped  to  Piscataqua,  and  the  people  there  refused  to 
give  him  up ;  "  it  was  their  custom,  some  of  them," 
says  Winthrop,  "  to  countenance  all  such  lewd  persons 
as  fled  from  us."  The  case  of  Sequeen  was  still  more 
remarkable.  This  was  the  chief  who  had  instigated  the 
attack  on  Wethersfield,  in  which  nine  of  the  inhabitants 
had  been  slain.  But  the  elders  and  magistrates  of 
Massachusetts,  whose  opinion  was  asked  on  the  subject, 
decided  that  Sequeen,  having  been  first  injured,  might, 
by  the  law  of  nations,  right  himself,  either  by  force  or 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  I.     £53 

iraud ;  "  and  though  the  damage  he  had  done  had  been  CHAPTER 

a  hundred  times  more  than  what  he  had  sustained,  that 

is  not  considerable  in  point  of  a  just  war ;  neither  was  1637. 
he  bound,  upon  such  an  open  act  of  hostility,  to  seek 
satisfaction  first  in  a  peaceable  way ;  it  was  enough 
that  he  had  complained  of  it  as  an  injury."  Upon  the 
strength  of  this  decision,  the  same  doctrine,  it  would 
seem,  in  virtue  of  which  the  Pequod  war  had  been  un- 
dertaken, the  people  of  Connecticut  resolved  to  give  over 
their  quarrel  with  Sequeen,  and  to  enter  into  a  new  ar- 
rangement with  the  Indians  on  the  river. 

The  Pequods  exterminated,  it  only  remained  to  deal 
with  the  heretics,  for  which  purpose  a  synod  was  assem- 
bled at  Newtown,  composed  of  all  the  elders  in  the  coun- 
try, including  several  who  had  just  arrived,  and  of  lay 
delegates,  also,  from  all  the  churches,  the  members  of  it 
being  entertained  for  eight  weeks  at  the  public  expense. 
Before  this  synod  was  laid  a  list  of  eighty -two  "  false  and  Aug.  so. 
heretical  opinions,"  nine  « unwholesome  expressions," 
and  divers  "  perversions  of  Scripture."  The  eighty -two 
opinions  were  condemned  at  once,  some  as  blasphemous, 
others  as  erroneous,  and  all  as  unsafe ;  and  even  Wheel- 
wright joined  in  this  condemnation.  Some  of  the  Bos- 
ton delegates  objected  to  the  production  before  the  synod 
of  such  a  list  of  errors  avowed  by  nobody,  and  exposing 
the  colony  to  unnecessary  reproach.  Insisting  upon  this 
point  too  pertinaciously,  they  were  silenced  by  threats  of 
magisterial  interference,  and  some  of  them  left  the  as- 
sembly. The  ground  thus  cleared,  there  remained  only 
five  points  in  dispute  between  Cotton  and  Wheelwright 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  rest  of  the  elders  on  the  other. 
By  mutual  explanation,  these  five  points  were  presently 
reduced  to  three,  and  those  three  were  finally  stated  in 
terms  so  ambiguous  that  Cotton  and  the  other  elders  ex- 


254  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  pressed  themselves  mutually  satisfied.    But  Wheelwright 

IX 

_____  would  not  agree. 

1637.  Besides  these  matters  of  faith,  some  points  of  disci- 
pline were  also  determined.  Women,  it  was  agreed, 
might  meet,  some  few  together,  to  pray  and  edify  one 
another ;  but  "  such  a  set  assembly  as  was  then  in  prac- 
tice at  Boston,  where  sixty  or  more  did  meet  every  week, 
and  one  woman  in  a  prophetical  way,  by  resolving  ques- 
tions of  doctrine  and  expounding  Scripture,  took  upon 
her  the  whole  exercise,"  was  pronounced  disorderly  and 
without  rule.  The  female  church  members,  though  ac- 
knowledged as  joint-heirs  of  salvation,  had  no  share  in 
the  earthly  power  of  the  theocracy,  not  even  the  right  of 
voting  in  mere  church  affairs.  It  was  also  resolved  that, 
"although  a  private  church  member  might  ask  a  ques- 
tion publicly  after  sermon  for  information,  yet  this  ought 
to  be  very  wisely  and  sparingly  done,  and  that  with  leave 
of  the  elders ;  but  questions  then  in  use,  whereby  the 
doctrines  delivered  were  reproved,  and  the  elders  reproach- 
ed, and  that  with  bitterness,  were  utterly  condemned." 

This  synod,  however,  proved  no  more  successful  than 
others  before  and  since,  in  bringing  about  unity  of  opin- 
ion. Though  "  confounded  and  clearly  confuted,"  Wheel- 
wright and  his  party  persisted  in  their  errors,  and  «  were 
as  busy  in  nourishing  contentions  as  before."  Convinced 
"  that  two  so  opposite  parties  could  not  contain  in  the 
same  body  without  apparent  hazard  of  ruin  to  the  whole," 
the  General  Court,  at  its  session  shortly  after,  resolved 
Nor.  3.  upon  decisive  steps.  Aspinwall,  elected  to  this  court  as 
a  deputy  from  Boston,  was  deprived  of  his  seat,  disfran- 
chised, and  banished,  because  he  had  drafted  the  Boston 
petition  presented  at  the  previous  court  in  Wheelwright's 
favor — a  very  moderate  and  respectful  document.  His 
colleague,  who  justified  the  petition,  though  he  had  not 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  L      25-5 

signed  it,  was  also  eipelkd.    The  men  of  Boston  inclined  CHAPTER 

to  re-elect  these  expelled  deputies ;  but  Cotton,  with  much 

ado,  dissuaded  them.  Two  new  deputies  were  chosen,  1637. 
but  one  of  these  was  rejected  because  he  too  had  signed 
the  obnoxious  petition ;  so  the  vacant  seat  remained  un- 
filled. Wheelwright  having  refused  to  leave  Boston,  or 
to  give  up  his  public  "  exercising*/'  was  disfranchised 
and  banished.  He  appealed  to  the  king,  but  was  told 
that  no  such  appeal  lay,  for,  «  by  the  king's  grant,"  the 
General  Court  was  empowered  "  to  hear  and  determine, 
without  any  reservation/' 

Mrs.  Hutehinson  was  also  banished;  but,  because  it 
was  winter,  she  was  placed  in  custody  in  a  private  house 
in  Roxbury,  none  but  her  relations  and  the  elders  being 
permitted  to  see  her.  Captain  Underbill,  hero  lately  in 
the  Pequod  war,  was  next  called  to  account.  He  boast- 
ed, some  time  after,  of  having  received  his  "  assurance" 
while  enjoying  a  pipe  of  that  "  good  creature"  tobacco, 
"  since  which  he  had  never  doubted  of  his  good  estate, 
neither  should,  though  he  should  fall  into  sin."  Indeed, 
he  was  a  little  too  fond  of  other  good  creatures  to  suit  the 
austere  taste  of  Massachusetts.  As  he  persisted  in  jus-  * 
tifying  the  petition,  he  was  deprived  of  his  office,  and  dis- 
franchised, as  were  five  or  six  others  of  the  principal 
signers.  All  signers  of  that  document,  except  about 
twenty  who  submitted  and  acknowledged  their  fault,  and 
all  others  who  had  been  active  on  Mrs.  Hntchinson's  side, 
were  ordered  to  bring  in  and  deliver  up  their  arms ;  an 
order  to  which  fifty-eight  freemen  of  Boston,  and  others 
in  Cbarlestown,  Salem,  Ipswich,  and  Xewbury.  reluct- 
antly submitted.  Finally,  a  law  was  passed  subjecting 
to  fine  and  imprisonment  all  who  should  defame  the  court 
^nd  its  proceedings ;  and,  lest  "  godly  friends  in  En- 
gland* might  be  alarmed,  and  discouraged  from  removal, 


256  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  an  account  of  this  whole  transaction,  "  with  reasons  and 

IX 

observations,"  was  drawn  up,  and  sent  home  to  be  pub- 

1637.  lished. 

Mrs.  Hutchinson's  husband,  Coddington,  John  Clarke, 
educated  a  physician,  and  other  principal  persons  of  the 
Hutchinsonian  party,  were  given  to  understand  that,  un- 
less they  removed  of  their  own  accord,  proceedings  would 
be  taken  to  compel  them  to  do  so.  They  sent,  therefore, 
to  seek  a  place  of  settlement,  and  found  one  in  Plymouth 
patent ;  but,  as  the  magistrates  of  that  colony  declined  to 
allow  them  an  independent  organization,  they  presently 
purchased  of  the  Narragansets,  by  the  recommendation 

1638.  of  Williams,  the  beautiful  and  fertile  Island  of  Aquiday. 
March  24.  rpne  ^QQ  wag  fortv  fa^oms  of  white  wampum  ;   for  the 

additional  gratuity  of  ten  coats  and  twenty  hoes,  the 
present  inhabitants  agreed  to  remove.  The  purchasers 
called  it  the  Isle  of  Rhodes — a  name  presently  changed 
by  use  to  RHODE  '  ISLAND.  Nineteen  persons,  having 
signed  a  covenant  u  to  incorporate  themselves  into  a 
body  politic,"  and  to  submit  to  "  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ" 
and  to  his  "most  perfect  and  absolute  laws,"  began  a 
*  settlement  at  its  northern  end,  with  Coddington  as  their 
judge  or  chief  magistrate,  and  three  elders  to  assist  him. 
They  were  soon  joined  by  others  from  Boston  ;  but  those 
who  were  "  of  the  rigid  separation,  and  savored  Anabap- 
tism,"  removed  to  Providence,  which  now  began  to  be 
well  peopled. 

Having  obtained,  at  the  same  time  with  the  cession 
of  Aquiday,  a  formal  grant  of  Providence,  by  a  special 
Oct.  8.  deed  shortly  after  Williams  admitted  his  associates  and 
such  others  "  as  the  major  part  shall  receive  into  the 
same  fellowship  of  vote,"  as  joint  owners.  A  covenant 
to  submit  "  in  civil  things  only"  to  the  orders  of  "  the 
major  part,"  was  at  the  same  time  agreed  to. 


NEW  ENGLAND   UNDER   CHARLES   I.  £57 

Mrs.  Hutchinson  withstood  all  the  strenuous  efforts  CHAPTER 

IX. 

for  her  conversion  made  by  the  elders  during  her  winter's , 

imprisonment  at  Roxbury.  She  even  fell  into  new  er-  1638. 
rors,  maintaining  that  men's  souls,  mortal  by  generation, 
are  made  immortal  by  Christ's  purchase — a  heresy  after- 
ward adopted  by  the  celebrated  Locke.  She  denied  the 
resurrection  of  the  body,  and  asserted  that  Sunday  is  but 
as  other  days.  Had  up  before  the  Boston  Church,  in  a 
session  which  lasted  from  eight  in  the  morning  to  ten  at 
night,  she  was  "  clearly  confuted,"  and  then  solemnly  ad- 
monished by  Cotton,  so  lately  her  adherent,  "  with  much 
zeal  and  detestation  of  her  errors  and  pride  of  opinion." 
At  a  subsequent  church  meeting,  after  much  time  and  March  22 
many  arguments  "to  bring  her  to  see  her  sin,"  the  church 
with  one  consent  "  cast  her  out."  After  she  was  ex- 
communicated, her  spirits,  which  seemed  before  somewhat 
dejected,  revived  again,  and  she  gloried  in  her  sufferings, 
declaring  "  it  was  the  greatest  happiness  next  to  Christ 
that  ever  befell  her." 

Having  received  orders  from  the  governor  to  leave  the 
jurisdiction,  she  sought  refuge  at  Providence,  but  soon 
joined  her  husband  and  friends  at  Aquiday.  On  some 
hint  that  Mary  Dyer,  one  of  her  chief  disciples  at  Bos- 
ton, had  brought  forth  a  monstrous  birth,  the  magistrates 
of  Massachusetts  investigated  the  matter  with  eager  cu- 
riosity and  disgusting  minuteness.  A  somewhat  similar 
accident,  the  result,  doubtless,  of  excitement  and  perse- 
cution, was  presently  said  to  have  happened  to  Mrs. 
Hutchinson  herself.  These  occurrences  were  eagerly 
seized  upon  as  providential  proofs  of  the  monstrosity  of 
her  opinions,  and  are  relied  on  as  such  in  the  "Rise, 
Reign,  and  Ruin  of  the  Antinomians,  Familists,  arid  Lib- 
ertines of  New  England,"  written  by  Welde,  minister 
of  Roxbury,  in  a  very  ferocious  style,  and  published  a 
I.  R 


258  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  few  years  after  in  England.  Even  the  terrible  charge 
'  of  witchcraft  was  insinuated  against  Mrs.  Hutchinson — 
1638.  for  how,  unless  by  supernatural  aid,  could  she  inveigle 
so  many  into  error  ? 

These  vigorous  proceedings  against  the  dissidents  were 
Sept.  6.  followed  up  by  two  laws,  one  subjecting  to  assessment 
and  distress  all  who  did  not  voluntarily  contribute  ac- 
cording to  their  ability  to  all  town  charges,  "  as  well  for 
upholding  the  ordinances  in  the  churches  as  otherwise ;" 
the  other,  exposing  excommunicated  persons  to  fine,  im- 
prisonment, and  banishment,  at  the  pleasure  of  the  mag- 
istrates, as  "their  contempt  and  obstinacy  shall  deserve." 
But  this  last  law  was  soon  repealed. 

As  the  final  triumph  of  the  orthodox  party,  Cotton,  at 
Dec.  13.  a  public  fast,  "  did  confess  and  bewail  his  own  and  the 
Church's  security  and  credulity  whereupon  so  many  dan- 
gerous errors  had  gotten  up."  He  showed  how  he  came 
to  be  deceived,  the  errors  being  artfully  formed  so  near  the 
truth  he  had  preached,  that  at  first  he  did  not  perceive 
their  enormity.  By  this  seasonable  concession  "did  that 
reverend  and  worthy  minister  of  the  Gospel  recover  his 
former  splendor  throughout  the  country  of  New  England." 

Immediately  after  his  banishment,  Wheelwright  had 
purchased  of  the  Indians  a  tract  of  land  at  the  falls  of 
the  Squamscot,  a  southern  branch  of  the  Piscataqua ; 
and  there,  with  some  of  his  adherents,  he  founded  the  town 
and  church  of  Exeter,  which  remained  for  the  next  three 
years  an  independent  community,  with  a  frame  of  gov- 
ernment agreed  on  by  the  inhabitants.  Wheelwright 
and  his  associates  continued,  however,  to  be  so  far  recog- 
nized by  the  Boston  Church  as  to  receive  a  regular  dis- 
mission. The  neighboring  settlements  on  the  Piscata- 
qua, at  Portsmouth  and  Dover,  furnished  an  asylum  to 
other  of  the  refugees.  The  Lords  Say  and  Brooke  had 


NEW  ENGLAND   UNDER  CH-ARLES   I.  259 

sold  out  their  interest  in  the  upper  plantation  to  the  resi-  CHAPTER 
dents  there ;  and  one  Burdett,  a  discontented  minister  ' 
from  Massachusetts,  had  got  himself  elected  governor.  1638. 
He  appears  to  have  carried  on  a  correspondence  with 
Archbishop  Laud,  in  which  he  gave  no  very  favorable 
account  of  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  affairs  of  New  En- 
gland. After  a  voyage  to  England,  and  a  vain  attempt 
to  regain  the  favor  of  the  Boston  Church,  in  the  course 
of  which  he  was  charged  with  "  suspicion  of  incontinen- 
cy,"  the  banished  Underbill  retired  to  Dover,  and,  much 
to  the  disgust  of  the  Massachusetts  magistrates,  pres- 
ently got  himself  chosen  governor  in  Burdett's  place. 
Burdett  was  also,  through  Underbill's  contrivance,  su- 
perseded as  minister  by  one  Knolles,  recently  arrived  in 
Massachusetts,  but  who,  being  suspected  of  "  famistical 
opinions,"  had  been  "  denied  residence"  there.  The  prin- 
cipal interest  in  the  lower  Piscataqua  plantation,  or  Ports- 
mouth, seems  to  have  belonged  to  Mason;  but  he  was 
now  dead,  and,  in  payment  of  their  wages,  his  agents 
shared  among  them  the  goods  and  cattle,  the  lands  and 
houses,  and,  like  their  neighbors  of  Dover  and  Exeter,  or- 
ganized an  independent  government  of  their  own.  Hamp- 
ton,  the  fourth  town  in  New  Hampshire,  inviting  on  ac- 
count of  its  extensive  salt  meadows,  was  settled,  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts,  by  orthodox  emigrants 
from  that  colony.  In  a  controversy  which  presently 
arose  between  Wheelwright  and  the  settlers  at  Hampton 
as  to  their  mutual  bounds,  in  answer  to  Wheelwright's 
allegation  of  a  purchase  from  the  Indians,  the  Massachu- 
setts General  Court  set  up  the  doctrine  that  the  Indians 
"  had  only  a  natural  right  to  as  much  land  as  -they  had 
or  could  improve" — a  hard  doctrine,  indeed,  for  the  In- 
dians, if  improvement  meant  cultivation,  since  the  In- 
dians improved  their  lands  chiefly  as  hunting  grounds. 


HISTORY   OF    THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER       Plymouth  colony  profited  also  by  the  religious  dissen- 

-      sions  of  Massachusetts.    "William  Vassall,  one  of  the  early 

1638,  Massachusetts  assistants,  an  emigrant  with  Winthrop 

and  the  charter,  but  less  exclusive  in  his  religious  views, 

having  returned  from  England,  had  established  himself 

at  ScituatC)  the  second  town  in  that  colony.    Settlements 

also  had   been  more  recently  commenced  at  Taunton, 

Sandwich,  and  Yarmouth,  and  presently  at  Barnstable, 

in  part,  at  least,  by  persons  discontented  with  the  strict 

regimen  of  Massachusetts. 

An  opposite  reason  led  to  the  foundation  of  still  an- 
other independent  colony.  In  the  height  of  the  Hutch- 
inson  controversy,  John  Davenport,  an  eminent  noncon- 
formist minister  from  London,  had  arrived  at  Boston,  and 
with  him  a  wealthy  company,  led  by  two  merchants, 
Theophilus  Eaton  and  Edward  Hopkins.  Alarmed  at 
the  new  opinions  and  religious  agitations  of  which  Mas- 
sachusetts was  the  seat,  notwithstanding  very  advanta- 
geous offers  of  settlement  there,  they  preferred  to  estab- 
lish a  separate  community  of  their  own,  to  be  forevei 
free  from  the  innovations  of  error  and  licentiousness. 
Eaton  and  others  sent  to  explore  the  coast  west  of  the 
Connecticut,  selected  a  place  for  settlement  near  the 
head  of  a  spacious  bay  at  Quinapiack,  or,  as  the  Dutch 
called  it,  Red  Hill,  where  they  built  a  hut,  and  spent 

April  13.  the  winter.  They  were  joined  in  the  spring  by  the  rest 
of  their  company,  and  Davenport  preached  his  first 
sermon  under  the  shade  of  a  spreading  oak.  Presently 
they  entered  into  what  they  called  a  "  plantation  cov- 
enant,'7 and  a  communication  being  opened  with  the  In- 
dians, who  were  but  few  in  that  neighborhood,  the  lands 
of  Quinapiack  were  purchased,  except  a  small  reserva- 
tion on  the  east  side  of  the  bay,  the  Indians  receiving  a 
few  presents  and  a  promise  of  protection.  A  tract  north 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  I.      2t>  1 

oi  the  bay,  ten  miles  in  one  direction  and  thirteen  in  CHAPTER 
the  other,  was  purchased  for  ten  coats ;  and  the  colo-     .,. 
nists  proceeded  to  lay  out  in  squares  the  ground-plan  of  1638. 
a  spacious  city,  to  which  they  presently  gave  the  name 
of  NEW  HAVEN. 

The  towns  on  the  Connecticut,  awaiting  an  arrange- 
ment with  the  lords  proprietors  in  England,  had  delayed 
coming  to  any  permanent  political  settlement.  They 
suspected  that  Massachusetts  intended  to  subject  them 
to  her  jurisdiction.  This  intention  the  Massachusetts 
magistrates  denied ;  but  they  were  eager  for  a  federal 
union,  for  which  negotiations  had  been  for  some  time 
going  on.  As  the  jealousy  of  the  Connecticut  towns 
placed  serious  obstacles  in  the  way  even  of  such  a 
union,  Massachusetts  insisted  that  at  least  Springfield, 
which  fell  within  the  limits  of  her  charter,  should  sub- 
mit to  her  jurisdiction.  The  other  three  towns,  in  a 
convention  of  all  the  freemen,  adopted  a  written  consti-  1639. 
tution,  based  on  that  of  Massachusetts,  but  different  in  <JaiL 14b 
one  important  particular.  As  at  Plymouth,  residents  of 
acceptable  character  might  be  admitted  freemen,  though 
not  church  members.  The  magistrates  or  assistants 
were  to  be  chosen  annually  ;  but  no  magistrate  was  to 
be  newly  elected  till  he  had  first  stood  propounded  or 
nominated  for  a  year.  The  governor,  required  to  be  a 
church  member,  was  to  be  chosen  from  among  the  magis- 
trates, but  could  not  be  elected  for  two  years  in  succes- 
sion. Hopkins  had  concluded  to  settle  at  Hartford,  and, 
alternately  with  Haynes,  was  chosen  governor  for  many 
years.  The  governor  and  assistants  acted  as  a  court  of 
law,  and,  with  a  House  of  Deputies  chosen  by  the  towns, 
composed  a  General  Court,  with  the  same  jurisdiction  as 
in  Massachusetts,  but  the  deputies  were  to  sit  by  them- 
selves as  a  separate  body — an  arrangement  not  yet 


262  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  adopted  in  the  mother  colony.     Justice  was  to  be  ad- 
.     ministered  "  according  to  established  laws,"  any  deficien- 

1638.  cies  in  which  were  to  be  supplied  by  "the  rule  of  the 
Oct     word  of  God."     Mason,  appointed  "  military  officer"  on 

a  salary  of  £40  a  year,  continued  to  hold  that  office  dur- 
ing his  life.  Alarm  at  some  hostile  proceedings  of  the 
Dutch,  and  apprehensions  of  the  Indians  by  whom  they 
were  surrounded,  soon  caused  the  treaty  for  a  federal 
union  with  Massachusetts  to  be  renewed.  Fort  Say- 
brook  constituted  a  separate  jurisdiction,  under  the  En- 
glish proprietors,  one  of  whom,  Fenwick,  arrived  there 
about  this  time,  with  his  own  family  and  some  others. 

After  living  for  a  year  under  their  plantation  cove- 
nant, the  settlers  at  Quinapiack  proceeded  to  a  more 

1639.  definite  organization.      They  agreed,  in  the  first  place, 
June  4.  .J.Q  iimjt  the  right  to  participate  in  the  government  to 

church  members,  and  to  adopt  the  Scriptures — esteemed 
a  perfect  rule  for  all  duties — as  the  law  of  the  land. 
The  church  was  organized  with  great  care.  After 
prayers  and  a  sermon,  twelve  persons  were  elected  by 
the  body  of  the  colonists,  with  power,  after  trial  of  each 
other,  to  designate  seven  of  their  own  number  as  the 
seven  pillars — a  scriptural  and  mystical  number,  as 
Davenport's  preliminary  sermon  had  proved.  These 
seven  were  to  admit  such  additional  church  members  as 
Del  25.  they  saw  fit.  The  church  being  organized,  and  a  body 
of  freemen  thus  provided,  Eaton  was  chosen  governor, 
an  office  to  which  he  was  annually  re-elected  for  twenty 
years.  There  was  no  trial  by  jury  at  New  Haven,  no 
warrant  being  found  for  it  in  the  word  of  God.  The 
regulations  and  judicial  proceedings  of  this  colony,  deep- 
ly tinged  by  Puritan  austerity,  have  been  objects,  under 
the  derisive  name  of  «  blue  laws,"  of  some  exaggeration 
and  much  ridicule. 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  I.      263 

Massachusetts,  however,  was  hardly  behind  New  Ha-  CHAPTER 

ven  in  zeal  for  the  purity  of  the  faith.     An  attempt  to 

establish  at  Weymouth  a  new  church,  on  the  latitudina-  1639. 
rian  principle  of  admitting  all  baptized  persons,  without 
requiring  either  profession  of  faith  or  relation  of  expe- 
rience, was  promptly  suppressed.  Lenthall,  the  propos- 
ed minister,  was  forced  to  make  a  very  humble  apology, 
and  soon  found  it  expedient  to  take  refuge  at  Aquiday. 
Several  laymen,  active  in  the  business,  were  heavily  fined ; 
one  was  whipped,  and  another  disfranchised. 

The  General  Court  had  already  made  some  provision 
toward  educating  a  succession  of  learned  ministers,  by 
establishing  a  school  at  Newtown,  the  name  of  which  had  1638. 
been  changed  to  Cambridge,  in  honor  of  the  university 
where  most  of  the  Massachusetts  ministers  had  received 
their  education.  Endowed  by  John  Harvard,  a  minister 
who  died  shortly  after  his  arrival,  with  his  library  and 
the  gift  of  half  his  estate,  amounting  to  £800,  or  $3840, 
this  school  was  now  erected  into  a  college,  named  after  1639. 
its  benefactor,  and  placed  under  the  superintendence  of  a 
board  of  overseers,  composed  of  the  magistrates  and  the 
ministers  of  the  six  neighboring  churches.  Henry  Dun- 
ster,  a  distinguished  Hebrew  scholar,  just  arrived  in  the 
colony,  was  chosen  the  first  president.  Besides  occa- 
sional annual  grants,  and  contributions  taken  up  for  its 
benefit,  the  income  of  the  ferry  between  Boston  and 
Charlestown  was  bestowed  on  the  college. 

A  printing  press,  said  to  have  been  the  gift  of  some 
friends  in  Holland,  was  set  up  at  Cambridge,  under  the 
charge  of  Stephen  Day,  the  first  north  of  Mexico.  Its 
first  literary  production  was  a  new  metrical  version  of  1640. 
the  Psalms,  prepared  by  Eliot,  Welde,  and  Mather,  and 
revised  by  Dunster,  which,  though  not  very  remarkable 
for  tunefulness,  long  continued  to  be  used  in  the  worship 
of  the  New  England  churches. 


264  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER       Winthrop's  re-election  as  governor  three  times  in  suc- 
'      cession  since  the  defeat  of  Vane  began  to  excite  some 

1639.  jealousy.      Such  repeated  re-elections  " might  make  way 
for  a  governor  for  life;"  which,  indeed,  had  been  "pro- 
pounded" by  some  of  the  elders   and  magistrates,  "  as 
most  agreeable  to  God's  institution,  and  the  practice  of 
all  well-ordered  states."     But  in  this  opinion  the  free- 
men of  Massachusetts  did  by  no  means  concur.     Con- 
necticut, as  we  have  just  seen,  had  taken  special  pains, 
in  its  fundamental  constitutions,  to  guard  against  any 
such  result.     A  like  jealousy  also  exhibited  itself  on  the 
subject  of  the  Standing  Council  for  Life.     Endicott  had 
been  added  to  that  council  as  a  third  member ;  it  never 
seems  to  have  had  any  others.      Though  still  allowed  to 
retain  the  superintendence  of  military  affairs,  its  mem- 
bers were  forbidden  to  act  as  magistrates,  unless  specially 
chosen  at  the  annual  elections.     The  next  year  the  ro- 

1640.  tation  principle  prevailed,  and  Dudley  was  chosen  govern- 
or ;  but  the  colonists  showed  their  regard  for  Winthrop 
by  contributing  upward  of  three  thousand  dollars  toward 
the  discharge  of  a  heavy  pecuniary  liability,  likely  to  be- 
come very  embarrassing  to  him,  in  which  he  had  been 
involved  by  the  dishonesty  of  his  agent  in  England. 

While  these  various  events  were  taking  place  in  New 
England,  the  alarm  of  danger  from  home,  though  some- 
what diminished,  had  by  no  means  wholly  subsided.  To 
Mason's  process  of  Quo  Warranto,  those  members  of  the 
company  resident  in  England,  on  whom  it  had  been 
served,  pleaded  a  disclaimer ;  but  the  death  of  Mason, 
already  mentioned,  prevented  further  proceedings  with 
1637  that  suit.  An  order,  however,  was  presently  issued  by 
the  Lords  Commissioners  for  Plantations,  that  no  person 
of  the  rank  of  a  "  subsidy  man,"  that  is,  rated  to  the  taxes 
called  subsidies,  should  embark  for  America  without  spe- 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  I.      265 

oial  license  ;  and  no  person  of  any  rank,  without  a  certif-  CHAPTER 
icate  from  his  parish  minister  of  conformity  to  the  church.  . 

As  this  prohibition  was  little  regarded,  an  order  was  is-  1638. 
sued  the  next  year  for  stopping  all  ships  bound  to  New 
England.  The  entreaties  of  the  ship-owners  procured 
the  recall  of  this  order  ;  but  the  Lords  Commissioners  for 
Plantations  dispatched  directions  to  Massachusetts  to  send 
home  the  charter  by  the  next  ship.  The  General  Court, 
by  letter  from  the  governor,  respectfully  declined,  lest  it 
might  be  construed  by  their  friends  in  England  as  a  sur- 
render of  that  instrument,  and  lest  "  many  bad  minds, 
yea,  and  some  weak  ones"  among  themselves,  should 
take  occasion  therefrom  to  think  it  lawful  and  necessary 
to  accept  a  governor  general.  A  fresh  demand  for  the 
charter  came  out  the  next  year,  with  assurances  that  a  1639. 
new  one  would  be  granted,  and  that  the  commissioners 
had  no  intention  to  deprive  the  colonists  of  their  liberties. 
This  order  came  inclosed  in  a  letter  from  Cradock ;  and 
since  the  commissioners  could  have  no  proof  of  its  deliv- 
ery, the  General  Court  resolved  not  to  notice  it  at  all. 
But  by  this  time  the  English  government  was  so  deeply 
involved  in  the  quarrel  with  Scotland,  upon  which  coun- 
try a  vain  attempt  was  made  to  force  Episcopacy  and 
the  Liturgy,  that  the  Puritan  colonies  of  New  England 
ceased  to  attract  attention. 

To  the  provinces  confirmed  to  the  indefatigable  Gor- 
ges at  the  surrender  of  the  great  New  England  patent,  1635 
he  had  given  the  name  of  NEW  SOMERSET.  Though  dis- 
appointed, as  already  mentioned,  in  visiting  his  province 
as  governor  general  of  New  England,  he  presently  sent 
out  his  nephew,  William  Gorges,  commissioned  as  his 
deputy  for  New  Somerset,  to  establish  a  government  over 
the  fishing  hamlets  already  planted  at  Agamenticus, 
Saco,  and  elsewhere  on  the  coast.  Gorges,  who  resided 


266  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  for  some  time  in  New  Somerset,  held  a  General  Court 
at  Saco.  After  his  return  to  England,  George  Cleves 
1637.  brought  out  a  commission,  by  which  a  number  of  the 
Massachusetts  magistrates  were  authorized  to  act  as  dep- 
uties for  New  Somerset.  But,  since  the  attack  on  their 
charter,  Gorges  was  suspected  and  distrusted.  Some  of 
the  persons  named  in  the  commission  had  left  Massachu- 
setts on  account  of  the  Hutchinsonian  controversy.  No 
action,  therefore,  was  had  under  it.  This  same  Cleves 
was  also  engaged  in  a  project  for  procuring  settlers  for 
Long  Island,  having  entered  into  an  agreement  to  that 
effect  with  the  Earl  of  Stirling,  to  whom,  in  the  late 
division  of  New  England,  that  island  had  been  assigned. 
Not  yet  discouraged,  though  he  had  sunk  upward  of 
db20,000,  $96,000,  during  the  thirty  years  for  which 
he  had  been  engaged  in  colonization  projects,  Gorges  ob- 

1639.  tained  a  royal  charter  for  his  American  provinces,  of  which 
the  name  was  now  changed  to  MAINE,  perhaps  in  honor 
of  the  queen,  who  had  some  feudal  relation  with  that 
French  province — though  "  the  main,"  as  distinguished 
from  the  numerous  islands  along  that  coast,  had  long 
been  a  current  appellation  with  the  planters  and  fisher- 
men.     Gorges  drew  up  a  scheme  intrusting  the  govern- 
ment to  a  lieutenant,  chancellor,  marshal,  admiral,  and 
other   high  officers,  who,  together   with  eight  deputies 
elected  by  the  people,  were  to  constitute  the  legislative 
council  or  General  Court.    The  little  village  of  Agamen- 
ticus,  chartered  first  as  a  borough  and  then  as  a  city, 
was  named  Georgian^  in  honor  of  the  proprietor,  whose 
kinsman  and  deputy,  Thomas  Gorges,  presently  held  at 

1 640.  Saco  the  first  General  Court  for  the  province  of  Maine. 
Burdett,  superseded  at  Dover  by  Knolles,  had  removed 
to  Agamenticus,  and,  being  fined  by  this  court  for  adul- 
tery, he  proceeded  to  England  to  prosecute  his  appeal. 


NE  V  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  I.      267 

Meanwhile,  in  England,  affairs,  once  set  in  motion,  CHAPTER 

were  making  very  rapid  progress.     The  attempted  paci- 

fication  with  the  Scotch  Covenanters  proved  a  failure.  1640. 
The  Scottish  army  entered  England,  and  Charles  soon 
found  himself  obliged  to  call  that  famous  Long  Parlia- 
ment, the  most  remarkable  body  in  English  history.  A 
large  number  of  its  members  were  Puritans ;  almost  all 
were  opposed  to  Charles's  tyrannical  policy.  They  en- 
tered at  once  on  the  redress  of  grievances,  and,  in  the 
course  of  eighteen  months,  assumed  the  entire  political 
authority  of  the  realm.  On  a  petition  against  the  re- 
straints on  emigration,  presented  to  the  House  of  Lords 
soon  after  the  meeting  of  this  Parliament,  it  was  resolved 
that  the  colonists  should  enjoy  all  their  liberties,  accord- 
ing to  their  patents.  But  the  recent  political  change  at 
home  had  removed  the  chief  inducement  to  emigrate. 

The  accessions  which  New  England  henceforward  re- 
ceived from  abroad  were  more  than  counterbalanced  by 
perpetual  emigrations,  which,  in  the  course  of  two  cen- 
turies, have  scattered  her  sons  over  every  part  of  North 
America,  and,  indeed,  of  the  globe.  The  immigrants  of 
the  preceding  period  had  not  exceeded  twenty-five  thou- 
sand— a  primitive  stock,  from  which  has  been  derived  not 
less,  perhaps,  than  a  fourth  part  of  the  present  popula- 
tion of  the  United  States. 

The  cost  of  New  England  colonization  thus  far  has 
been  reckoned  at  a  million  of  dollars — a  great  sum  for 
those  times,  but  probably  short  of  the  truth.  Already 
there  existed  east  of  the  Hudson  twelve  independent  com- 
munities, comprising  not  less  than  fifty  towns  or  distinct 
settlements.  But  a  consolidation  presently  took  place, 
by  which  the  separate  jurisdictions  were  reduced  to  six. 

•n  ;;»  o 


268  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 


CHAPTER  X. 

NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT. 


CHAPTER  J3UCH  coin  as  the  emigrants  to  New  England  brought 


S 

with  them  quickly  went  back  again  in  payment  for  im- 
ported goods  ;  but,  so  long  as  the  emigration  was  kept  up, 
this  inconvenience  was  little  felt.  Every  new  set  of  em- 
igrants brought  a  fresh  supply  of  money  with  them  ;  and 
the  lively  demand  for  corn  and  cattle,  on  the  part  of  the 
new  comers,  raised  prices  to  a  high  pitch.  The  sudden 
stop  put  to  immigration,  occasioned  by  the  political  chang- 
es in  England,  caused  a  great  fall  of  prices,  and  a  corre- 
sponding difficulty  in  paying  debts.  Taxes  had  all  along 
been  paid  in  grain  and  cattle,  at  rates  fixed  by  the  Gen- 
eral Court ;  and  grain,  at  different  prices  for  the  different 
sorts,  was  now  made  a  legal  tender  for  the  payment  of 
1640.  all  new  debts.  To  prevent  sacrifices  of  property  in  cases 
of  inability  to  pay,  corn,  cattle,  and  other  personal  goods, 
or,  in  defect  of  such  goods,  the  house  and  lands  of  the 
debtor,  when  taken  in  execution,  were  to  be  delivered  to 
the  creditor,  in  full  satisfaction,  at  such  value  as  they 
might  be  appraised  at  by  "  three  understanding  and  in- 
different men,"  one  chosen  by  the  creditor,  another  by  the 
debtor,  and  a  third  by  the  marshal.  So  far  as  relates  to 
lands  and  houses,  the  method  of  levy  thus  introduced  pre- 
vails to  this  day — a  marked  peculiarity  in  the  law  of  New 
England. 

Beaver  skins  were  also  paid  and  received  as  money, 
and,  from  their  value  as  a  remittance,  they  held  the  next 


NEWE  N  GLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT,  269 

place  to  coin.  Musket  balls,  at  a  farthing  each,  were  CHAPTER 
at  one  time  a  legal  tender  to  the  amount  of  a  shilling.  _____ 
A  more  available  currency  was  found  in  the  wampum  1640. 
or  peage,  already  mentioned — cylindrical  beads  half  an 
inch  long,  of  two  colors,  white  and  bluish  black,  made  by 
the  Indians  from  parts  of  certain  sea-shells.  The  coasts 
of  Long  Island  Sound  abounded  with  these  shells,  and, 
according  to  Bradford,  the  Pequods  and  Narragansets 
had  grown  "  rich  and  potent"  by  their  abundance  of  wam- 
pum, much  in  demand  for  purposes  of  ornament  among 
the  interior  tribes.  The  people  of  Plymouth  first  learned 
the  use  and  value  of  this  article  from  the  Dutch  of  Man- 
hattan, and  they  soon  found  it  very  profitable  in  trade 
with  the  Eastern  Indians,  the  shells  of  which  it  was  made 
not  being  common  north  of  Cape  Cod.  Presently  it  came 
to  be  employed  as  a  circulating  medium,  first  in  the  In- 
dian traffic,  and  then  among  the  colonists  generally. 
Three  of  the  black  beads,  or  six  of  the  white,  passed  for  a 
penny.  For  convenience  of  reckoning,  they  were  strung 
in  known  parcels,  a  penny,  threepence,  a  shilling,  and 
five  shillings  in  white  ;  twopence,  sixpence,  two  and  six- 
pence, and  ten  shillings  in  black.  A  fathom  of  white 
was  worth  ten  shillings,  or  two  dollars  and  a  half;  a 
fathom  of  black,  twice  as  much ;  but  as  the  quantity  in 
circulation  increased,  the  value  presently  depreciated,  and 
the  number  of  beads  to  the  penny  was  augmented. 

The  difficulty  of  paying  for  imported  goods,  and  the 
depreciation  in  the  value  of  corn  and  cattle,  stimulated 
the  colonists  to  new  kinds  of  industry.  Hugh  Peters,  who 
had  succeeded  Williams  as  minister  of  Salem,  and  whose 
zeal  in  worldly  affairs  led  him  to  suppress  the  weekly 
lecture  there,  was  very  busy  in  getting  up  a  company 
for  the  fisheries,  which  hitherto  had  been  carried  on  ex- 
clusively from  England.  Already  the  General  Court  had 


270  HISTORY    OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  made  an  order  that  all  property  employed  in  that  business 
'  should  be  free  of  taxation  for  seven  years.  Ship  build- 
1640.  ing  was  also  gone  into,  and  Peters  was  active  in  promot- 
ing that.  In  the  course  of  two  years,  six  large  vessels 
were  built,  in  which  voyages  were  undertaken  to  Madei- 
ra, the  Canaries,  and  presently  to  Spain,  with  cargoes 
of  staves  and  fish,  which  found  there  a  ready  market. 
Wines,  sugar,  and  dried  fruit  were  imported  in  return. 
Thus  early  was  commenced  that  career  of  navigation 
and  commerce  in  which  New  England  still  continues  so 
active  and  distinguished.  Nor  were  manufactures  neg- 
lected. The  cultivation  of  hemp  and  flax  was  success- 
fully undertaken ;  vessels  were  sent  to  the  West  Indies 
for  cotton ;  and  the  fabric  of  linen,  cotton,  and  woolen 
cloths  was  commenced,  particularly  at  Rowley,  a  new 
town  between  Ipswich  and  Newbury,  where  a  colony  of 
Yorkshire  clothiers  had  recently  settled,  with  Ezekiel 
Rogers,  reputed  a  grandson  of  the  martyr,  for  their  min- 
ister. Nathaniel  Rogers,  cousin  of  the  minister  of  Row- 
ley, was  settled  at  Ipswich  as  Norton's  colleague,  in 
place  of  Ward,  who  had  resigned. 

The  jealousy  entertained  by  the  freemen  of  the  arbi- 
trary and  undefined  powers  exercised  by  the  magistrates 
had  been  exhibited  in  repeated  calls  for  a  body  of  funda- 
mental laws,  "in  resemblance  of  a  magna  charta."  Two 

1635.  commissions,  successively  appointed  to  draw  up  such  a 

1636.  code,  appear  to  have  made  but  little  progress.      Several 
of  the  magistrates,  in  fact,  were  opposed  to  the  proceed- 
ing, not  only  as  it  might  limit  their  authority,  but  be- 
cause the  maintenance  of  the  theocracy  might  make  it 
necessary  that  some  of  their  laws  should  run  counter  to 
that  provision  of  the  charter  which  required  the  legisla- 
tion of  the  colony  to  conform  to  that  of  England — a  con- 
tradiction which  it  was  thought  safer  to  introduce  by  cus- 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.  271 

torn  and  usage  than  by  express  enactment.     But  the  CHAPTER 
freemen  were  not  satisfied  ;  and  the  preparation  of  a  draft         ' 
of  fundamental  laws  had  been  again  intrusted  to  Cotton  1641. 
and  Ward,  who  made  separate  reports.    Cotton  had  taken 
for  his  model  "Moses,  his  judioials ;"  and  his  draft,  after- 
ward published  in  England,  has  been  often  erroneously 
represented  as  the  first  code  of  Massachusetts.     Ward, 
before  studying  divinity,  had  been  bred  a  lawyer.     His 
draft  seems  to  have  aimed  at  the  preservation  of  political 
rights,  as  they  began  to  be  claimed  in  England,  rather 
than  at  reconstructing  in  America  a  Jewish  theocracy. 

The  appointment  of  preacher  of  the  election  sermon 
had  hitherto  rested  with  the  Court  of  Assistants ;  but 
the  freemen,  without  consulting  the  magistrates,  and 
not  a  little  to  their  dissatisfaction,  about  the  time  these 
reports  were  made,  took  it  upon  themselves  to  call  Ward 
to  the  performance  of  that  duty ;  upon  which  occasion 
he  delivered,  as  Winthrop  informs  us,  "  a  moral  and 
political  discourse,"  grounded  more  on  "  the  old  Roman 
and  Grecian  governments"  than  on  the  "  practice  of  Is- 
rael." The  election  that  followed  resulted  in  the  main-  May 
tenance  of  the  rotation  principle,  by  the  choice  of  Rich- 
ard Bellingham  as  governor. 

At  the  same  court  Massachusetts  received  the  submis- 
sion of  Dover  and  Portsmouth,  a  proceeding  in  which 
Underhill  had  a  considerable  share.  Though,  after  his 
election  as  governor  of  Dover,  he  had  resented  with  some 
insolence  the  interference  of  the  Massachusetts  magis- 
trates, he  presently  became  alarmed  at  a  charge  of  adul- 
tery to  which  he  was  summoned  to  answer  by  the  Bos- 
ton Church.  He  obtained  a  safe-conduct,  came  to  Boston,  1640 
and  confessed  the  adultery  with  which  he  was  charged ;  MarclL 
but  his  submission  not  being  satisfactory,  the  church  ex- 
communicated him.  Several  months  after,  under  a  new  Sept 


272  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  safe-conduct,  he  came  again  to  Boston,  and  on  a  lecture 
'  day,  after  sermon,  in  presence  of  the  congregation,  stand- 
1640.  ing  upon  a  form,  in  his  worst  clothes,  without  a  band,  a 
foul  linen  cap  pulled  close  to  his  eyes — he  who  was  so  fond 
of  "  bravery  of  apparel" — with  deep  sighs  and  abundance 
of  tears,  laid  open  his  wicked  course,  his  adultery,  his 
hypocrisy,  his  persecution  of  God's  people,  and,  especial- 
ly, "  his  pride  and  contempt  of  the  magistrates."  He  jus- 
tified all  the  punishments  imposed  upon  him,  and  dwelt 
with  great  pathos  on  the  terrors  of  excommunication  *, 
how  he  bad  lost  all  his  pretended  assurance,  being  de- 
livered over  to  the  buffetings  of  Satan  and  the  horrors 
of  despair.  "  He  spoke  well,"  says  "Winthrop,  an  eye- 
witness of  the  scene,  "  save  that  his  blubberings  inter- 
rupted him,  and  all  along  discovered  a  broken  and  con- 
trite heart."  By  these  and  other  humiliations  he  ob- 
tained a  reversal  of  his  sentence  of  banishment ;  and,  still 
further  to  recommend  himself  to  favor,  he  pressed  the 
people  of  Dover  to  submit  to  the  jurisdiction  of  Massa- 
chusetts— a  proposition  which  had  been  for  some  time  in 
agitation.  The  magistrates  of  Massachusetts,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  dispute  with  Wheelwright  about  bounds, 
had  sent  to  explore  the  Merrimac,  which  was  thus  dis 
covered  to  come  from  the  north.  A  parallel  of  latitude 
three  miles  north  of  "  any  and  every  part"  of  the  Merri- 
mac formed  on  the  north  the  chartered  limit  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  a  claim  was  accordingly  set  up  to  all  the 
New  Hampshire  towns,  as  falling  within  that  boundary. 
A  local  disturbance  at  Dover  soon  gave  occasion  to  inter- 
fere. Knolles  had  been  superseded  there  by  one  Lark- 
ham,  "  a  man  of  good  parts,  and  wealthy,"  lately  arrived 
from  England,  whom  the  people  preferred  to  have  as  min- 
ister. But  he  did  not  "  savor  the  right  way  of  church 
discipline,"  and,  much  to  the  disgust  of  Knolles  and 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.  273 

Underbill,  received  into  the  church  all  who  offered  them-  CHAPTER 

x 

selves  as  candidates.     A  violent  quarrel  soon  arose  ;  the 

hostile  parties  took  arms ;   Knolles  marched  at  the  head  1641. 
of  his  followers,  pistol  in  hand,  with  a  Bible  raised  on  a 
pole  as  his  standard ;    Larkham  called  in  aid  from  the 
lower  settlement ;  an  armed  party  from  Portsmouth  came 
to  his  assistance ;  and  a  court  was  held,  at  which  Knolles, 
and  Underbill,  whose  intrigues  on  behalf  of  Massachu- 
setts were  not  unknown,  were  heavily  fined,  and  ordered 
to  leave  Dover.     They  applied  for  aid  to  Massachusetts  ; 
and  Peters  and  Bradstreet,  appointed  commissioners,  trav- 
eled on  foot  from  Salem  to  investigate  the  matter.     Just 
then,  to  add  to  the  confusion,  it  was  discovered  that 
Knolles  had  been  guilty  of  incontinence.     In  the  end, 
both  Dover  and  Portsmouth  agreed  to  submit  to  the  juris- 
diction of  Massachusetts  ;  on  condition,  however,  that,  so 
far  as  these  towns  were  concerned,  church  membership 
should  not  be  required  as  a  qualification  to  be  freemen, 
or  to  sit  as  representatives  in  the  General  Court.    Exeter 
came  into  the  same  arrangement  the  next  year.    Wheel-  1642 
wright  removed,  in  consequence,  with  some  of  his  adhe- 
rents, and  founded  the  town  of  Wells,  in  Maine.      Soon 
afterward  he  followed  the  example  of  Underbill,  and,  hav-  1643. 
ing  written  a  penitential  letter,  was  presently  allowed  to  Dec-  ?• 
return  to  Massachusetts ;    a  favor  extended,  on  similar  1644. 
concessions,  to  several  of  the  refugees  at  Aquiday  or  May 29- 
Rhode  Island. 

Some  friends  in  England,  shortly  after  the  meeting  of 
the  Long  Parliament,  had  suggested  an  application  on 
behalf  of  Massachusetts  to  that  body.  This,  at  first,  had 
been  declined,  "on  consideration,"  pays  Winthrop,  "that, 
if  we  should  put  ourselves  under  the  protection  of  Parlia- 
ment, we  must  then  be  subject  to  all  such  laws  as  they 
should  make,  in  which  course,  though  they  should  intend 
I.  S 


274  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  our  good,  yet  it  might  prove  very  prejudicial  to  us." 
'       But,  at  the  court  at  which  Bellingham  was  chosen  gov- 

1641.  ernor,  it  had  been  resolved  to  send  commissioners  to  ne- 
gotiate as  occasion  might  offer,  and  especially  to  explain 
to  the  friends  in  England  the  many  recent  failures  in  the 
payment  of  debts.  The  active  Peters,  appointed  on  this 
mission,  along  with  Welde,  minister  of  Roxbury,  and 
Hibbins,  one  of  the  assistants,  succeeded  in  obtaining 
several  contributions  for  the  benefit  of  the  colony.  The 
younger  Winthrop,  who  visited  England  in  their  com- 

1643.  pany,  returned  not  long  after  with  capital  and  workmen 
for  establishing  iron  works- — an  enterprise  warmly  encour- 
aged by  the  General  Court,  presently  set  on  foot  at  Brain- 
tree  and  Lynn,  and,  after  some  losses,  successfully  pros- 
ecuted. Peters,  who  had  formerly  resided  in  Holland, 
had  a  commission,  also,  from  the  governors  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  Connecticut  to  treat  with  the  Dutch  West 
India  Company  for  the  settlement  of  limits. 

From  the  two  drafts  above  mentioned,  that  of  Ward 
being  principally  followed,  a  body  of  fundamental  laws 
had  been  compiled  and  sent  to  every  town,  to  be  first 
considered  by  the  magistrates  and  elders,  and  then  to  be 
published  by  the  constables,  "  that  if  any  man  saw  any 
thing  to  be  altered,  he  might  communicate  his  thoughts 
to  some  of  the  deputies."  Thus  deliberately  prepared, 
these  laws,  ninety-eight  in  number,  or  one  hundred  in- 

1641.  eluding  the  preamble   and  conclusion,  were   at  length 
Dec.     formally  adopted  by  the  name  of  "  Fundamentals,"  or 
«  Body  of  Liberties." 

This  curious  code  commences  with  a  general  state- 
ment of  the  rights  of  the  inhabitants  in  seventeen  arti- 
cles, of  which  several  may  now  be  found  embodied  in  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  the  State  Bills 
of  Bights.  One  article  secures  the  right  of  moving  out 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.  275 

of  the  jurisdiction  at  pleasure — a  privilege  denied  in  Vir-  CHAPTER 

ginia,   and  hitherto  much  contested  in  Massachusetts 

Another  provides  that  no  man  shall  be  compelled  to  go  1.6.41. 
out  of  the  jurisdiction  upon  any  offensive  war ;  the  ex- 
ception, however,  of  "  vindictive  and  defensive  wars" 
left  ample  scope  for  military  enterprises.  All  monopo- 
lies, except  in  new  inventions  for  a  short  time,  and  all 
feudal  incumbrances  on  land,  are  prohibited. 

Next  follow  "  rights,  rules,  and  liberties  concerning 
judicial  proceedings,"  forty-one  in  number.  No  legal 
process  is  to  abate  for  circumstantial  errors  which  do  not 
prevent  the  person  or  the  case  from  being  rightly  under- 
stood. The  defendant  may  set  up  as  many  defenses  as 
he  pleases-— two  improvements  on  the  practice  of  the  En- 
glish courts,  subsequently  adopted  by  the  English  Par- 
liament. Pleaders  may  be  employed,  but  are  not  to  be 
paid.  Parties  to  suits  are  liable  to  a  personal  examina- 
tion— an  excellent  practice,  lately  resumed.  They  may 
mutually  agree  whether  to  refer  their  case  to  a  jury  or  to 
the  court.  False  and  malicious  plaintiffs  are  liable  to  a 
fine.  All  criminal  cases  must  be  tried  at  the  first  court 
after  process  is  commenced.  "  No  man  shall  be  beaten 
above  forty  stripes,  nor  shall  any  true  gentleman,  or 
any  man  equal  to  a  gentleman,  be  punished  with  whip- 
ping, unless  his  crime  be  very  shameful,  and  his  course 
of  life  vicious  and  profligate."  Torture  is,  prohibited, 
unless  in  a  capital  case,  upon  a  person  already  convicted 
upon  full  proof,  and  who  evidently  had  a  secret  accom- 
plice ;  "  then  he  may  be  tortured,  but  not  with  such  tor- 
tures as  be  barbarous  and  inhuman."  Barbarous  and 
cruel  punishments  are  prohibited — a  prohibition,  how- 
ever, which  did  not  extend  to  whipping,  standing  in  the 
pillory,  cropping,  and  other  similar  inflictions,  which  the 
hard  manners  of  those  times  did  not  esteem  cruel.  Two 


£76  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  or  three  witnesses,  or  their  equivalent,  are  required  in  a 
.    capital  case.     Jurors  are  to  be  chosen  by  the  freemen  of 
1641.  the  towns. 

Twenty  "  liberties,  more  particularly  concerning  the 
freemen,"  relate  to  the  civil  polity  of  the  colony.  The 
right  of  superintending  the  churches  is  conferred  upon 
the  magistrates  and  General  Court — the  representa- 
tives, it  must  be  recollected,  of  a.  constituency  of  church 
members.  The  right  to  deal  with  church  members  "  in 
a  civil  way,"  without  waiting  for  the  action  of  their  par- 
ticular churches — a  point  on  which  there  had  been  some 
controversy — is  expressly  vindicated.  No  church  cen- 
sure can  degrade  or  depose  any  civil  officer- — a  provision 
intended,  however,  not  so  much  for  the  benefit  of  the 
civil  power  against  the  churches,  as  to  protect  the  ma- 
jority of  church  members  against  the  members  of  each 
particular  church.  The  right  of  the  towns  to  elect  their 
"  prudential"  officers,  called  selectmen,  and  their  deputies 
to  the  General  Court,  and  of  the  body  of  the  freemen 
to  choose  annually  all  magistrates,  is  specially  guarded. 
The  control  of  all  local  treasuries  is  secured  to  the  free- 
men of  the  locality,  and  of  the  public  treasury  to  the 
General  Court,  which  has  also  the  pardoning  power. 
Jurors  "not  clear  in  their  judgments  or  consciences" 
may,  in  open  court,  consult  with  any  person  whom  they 
desire  "  to  resolve  or  advise"  them.  No  proscription  nor 
custom  may  prevail  to  establish  any  thing  "  morally  sin- 
ful by  the  law  of  God." 

"  Liberties  of  women,"  in  two  articles,  take  from  hus- 
bands that  right  over  the  wife  of  personal  chastisement, 
which  the  common  law  of  England  allowed.  The  Gen- 
eral Court  is  authorized  to  interfere  for  the  benefit  of 
the  widow,  to  whom,  at  his  death,  the  husband  had  not 
kft  "  a  competent  portion  of  his  estate." 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.    £77 

"  Liberties  of  children,"  in  four  articles,  give  the  eld-  CHAPTER 

est  son  a  double  portion  of  intestate  estates — a  practice 

borrowed  from  the  Mosaic  code,  and  adopted  throughout  1641. 
New  England.  Cases  of  "  willful  and  unreasonable  de- 
nial of  timely  marriage" — to  which,  as  respected  minors, 
parental  consent  was  necessary — and  of  unnatural  se- 
verity on  the  part  of  parents,  were  to  be  redressed  by 
the  magistrates. 

•*  Liberties  of  servants,"  in  four  articles,  made  it  law- 
ful to  harbor  indented  servants  flying  from  the  tyranny 
of  their  masters  until  the  matter  could  be  judicially  ex- 
amined, notice  being  given  to  the  master  and  the  nearest 
constable.  A  faithful  and  diligent  service  of  seven  years 
entitled  the  servant  to  dismissal  "  not  empty-handed ;" 
but  servants  unfaithful,  negligent,  and  unprofitable  to 
masters  who  treated  them  well,  were  not  to  be  discharged 
till  they  had  made  up  for  their  negligences.  A  servant 
maimed  or  disfigured  by  his  master  was  entitled  to  lib- 
erty and  other  recompense.  We  may  notice  here  inci- 
dentally, among  other  effects  of  the  prevailing  financial 
crisis  in  the  colony,  that  those  who  had  brought  estates 
with  them  from  England,  and  had  relied  on  the  labor  of 
indented  servants,  became  for  the  most  part  impover- 
ished, while  some  of  these  very  servants,  and  others  of 
inferior  condition,  craftsmen  or  traders,  were  quite  sue* 
cessful  in  acquiring  property,  and  founded  families  after- 
ward conspicuous  in  colonial  annals. 

"  Liberties  of  foreigners  and  strangers,"  in  three  arti- 
cles, limit  the  hospitalities  of  the  colony  to  people  of 
other  nations  "  professing  the  true  Christian  religion" — 
rather  a  narrow  limitation,  if  the  judgment  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  were  to  be  taken  as  the  standard.  But 
sufferers  by  shipwreck,  whether  friends  or  enemies,  were 
to  be  protected.  One  of  these  articles,  based  on  the  Mo- 


278  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  sale  code,  provides  that  "  there  shall  never  be  any  bond- 

^  slavery,  villanage,  nor  captivity  among  us,  unless  it  be 

1641.  lawful  captives  taken  in  just  wars,  and  such  strangers 
as  willingly  sell  themselves  or  are  sold  unto  us,  and 
these  shall  have  all  the  liberties  and  Christian  usages 
which  the  law  of  God  established  in  Israel  requires. 
This  exempts  none  from  servitude  who  shall  be  judged 
thereto  by  authority."  This  article  gives  express  sanc- 
tion to  the  slave  trade,  and  the  practice  of  holding  ne- 
groes and  Indians  in  perpetual  bondage,  anticipating  by 
twenty  years  any  thing  of  the  sort  to  be  found  in  the 
statutes  of  Virginia  or  Maryland. 

Two  articles  "of  the  brute  creature"  forbid  cruelty  to 
domestic  animals,  and  secure  the  right  of  pasturage  in 
uninclosed  lands  to  all  persons  driving  cattle. 

"  Capital  laws"  inflict  the  punishment  of  death  on 
twelve  offenses — idolatry,  witchcraft,  blasphemy,  pre- 
meditated murder,  sudden  or  passionate  murder,  poison- 
ing or  other  guileful  murder,  two  crimes  of  uncleanness, 
adultery,  man-stealing,  perjury  in  a  capital  case,  and 
"  the  treacherously  or  perfidiously  attempting  the  alter- 
ation or  subversion"  of  the  fundamental  frame  of  pol- 
ity adopted  by  the  colony.  Each  infliction  of  death  is 
backed  by  references  to  the  law  of  Moses.  Some  of  the 
deputies  were  very  earnest  for  specific  punishments  for 
all  minor  offenses;  but  this  was  zealously,  and,  for  the 
present,  successfully  opposed  by  the  magistrates,  who  in- 
sisted upon  a  discretion  on  those  points. 

The  fundamentals  conclude  with  a  declaration  of  "  the 
liberties  which  the  Lord  Jesus  has  given  to  the  churches." 
But  the  strict  union  between  church  and  state,  and 
the  despotic  authority  assumed  by  the  aggregate  of  the 
church  members,  as  represented  by  the  magistrates  and 
deputies,  reduced  the  liberties  of  the  individual  churches 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.  £79 

within  very   narrow   limits.     Almost  every   clause   in  CHAPTER 
this  section  is  burdened  with  a  qualification  which  de-___ 
stroys  its  force.      "  Every  church  hath  free  liberty  of  1641. 
election  and  ordination  of  all  their  officers,  provided  they 
be  able,  pious,  and  orthodox."     "  We  allow  private  meet- 
ings for  edification  in  religion  among  Christians  of  all 
sorts  of  people,  so  it  be  without  just  offense  for  number, 
time,  place,  and  other  circumstances."     The  polity  of 
Massachusetts  conferred,   in   fact,  unlimited  power   in 
matters  of  religion,  as  in  every  thing  else,  upon  the  ma- 
jority of  the  church  members,   as  represented  by  the 
magistrates  and  General  Court.     Those  in  the  minority, 
whether  churches  or  individuals,  had  no  rights  and  no 
alternative  but  silence  and  submission,  or  withdrawal 
from  the  colony. 

Bellingham's  administration  was  a  good  deal  disturbed 
by  contentions  between  him  and  the  other  magistrates. 
He  got  into  difficulty,  also,  with  the  deputies,  who  gave 
him  a  "  solemn  admonition"  for  having  presumed  to 
alter,  without  authority  from  the  court,  the  amount  of 
a  fine  which  had  been  imposed.  The  curious  circum- 
stances of  his  second  marriage  brought  him  also  into 
collision  with  the  law.  The  bride  was  a  young  lady 
about  to  be  engaged  to  a  young  friend  of  the  governor, 
who  had  promoted  the  match  ;  but  all  of  a  sudden  over- 
come, as  he  alleged,  by  "  the  strength  of  his  affection," 
Bellingham  proposed  on  his  own  account.  The  lady  ac- 
cepted, and,  without  waiting  to  conform  to  the  publish- 
ment law,  the  governor,  by  virtue  of  his  authority  as  a 
magistrate,  performed  the  marriage  ceremony  himself! 

At  the  next  election  Winthrop  was  again  chosen  gov-  1642. 
ernor,  notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  Speaker  Hathorne    May> 
to  have  him  left  out  of  the  magistracy  altogether,  under 
pretense  of  the  poverty  to  which  his  recent  losses  had 


280  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  reduced  him.      Bellingham,  however,  was   rechosen   a 
.  magistrate,  and  was  sitting  on  the  bench  as  such  when 

1642.  the  indictment  which  the  grand  jury  had  found  against 
him  for  violation  of  the  publishment  law  came  up  for 
trial.     He  did  not  leave  the  bench  ;  and,  as  but  one  or 
two  other  magistrates  were  present,  the  secretary,  not 
thinking  it  proper  that  he  should  sit  on  the  trial  of  his 
own  case,  passed  it  by ;  and  so  the  matter  seems  to  have 
dropped. 

Dudley  was  so  much  mortified  at  the  repeated  prefer- 
ences given  to  Winthrop  as  governor,  that  he  threaten- 
ed to  leave  the  colony,  and  was  with  great  difficulty  pre- 
vailed on  to  retain  his  place  as  a  magistrate.  The  spirit 
of  emigration,  coeval  with  the  planting  of  New  England, 
and  parallel  with  its  growth,  had  received  a  new  impulse 
from  the  late  decline  in  the  value  of  property.  Unde- 
terred by  the  "  meager,  unhealthful  countenances"  of 
Virginia  and  the  West  Indies,  many  were  so  taken  with 
the  supposed  ease  and  plenty  of  those  countries  as  to  pro- 
pose removing  thither.  Migration  to  Long  Island  was 
already  begun,  of  which  we  shall  have  occasion  to  speak 
further  in  another  chapter.  Thomas  Mayhew  having 
purchased  Martha's  Vineyard  of  an  agent  of  Lord  Stir- 
ling, presently,  with  a  colony  from  Watertown,  com- 

1643.  menced  a  settlement  there.     Lord  Say  was  engaged  in 
a  new  project  for  a  colony  at  New  Providence,  one  of  the 
Bahamas  ;  he  also  had  a  settlement  on  foot  at  Trinidad  ; 
and  some  people  of  Massachusetts,  through  the  impor- 
tunities of  Humphrey,  his  agent,  were  persuaded  to  re- 
move thither.     It  was  vainly  attempted  to  quiet  Hum- 
phrey by  choosing  him  major  general  of  the  Massachu- 
setts militia,  an  office  he  was  the  first  to  hold. 

Jealous  of  these  migrations,  Winthrop  wrote  to  Lord 
Say,  showing  him  "  how  evident  it  was  that  God  had 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.    281 

chosen  New  England  to  plant  his  people  in,  and  there-  CHAPTER 
fore  how  displeasing  it  would  be  to  the  Lord,  and  dan-         ' 
gerous  to  himself,  to  hinder  this  work."      The  Spaniards,  1642. 
who  claimed  the  Bahamas,  attacked  New  Providence, 
and  the  settlement  was  broken  up.     Nor  did  that  at  Trin- 
idad succeed    any   better.      "  Much    disputation  there 
was,"  says  the  patriotic  "Winthrop,  "  about  liberty  of  re- 
moving for  outward  advantages,  and  all  ways  were  sought 
for  an  open  door  to  get  out  at ;  but  it  is  to  be  feared 
many  crept  out  at  a  broken  wall.     For  such  as  come  to- 
gether into  a  wilderness  where  are  nothing  but  wild  beasts 
and  beast-like  men,  and  there  confederate  together  in 
civil  and  church  estate,  whereby  they  do,  implicitly  at 
least,  bind  themselves  to  support  each  other,  and  that  so- 
ciety, whether  civil  or  sacred,  of  which  they  are  mem- 
bers, how  they  can  break  from  this  without  free  consent 
is  hard  to  find,  so  as  may  satisfy  a  tender  or  good  con- 
science in  time  of  trial."      To  remain  in  Massachusetts 
was  to  submit,  however,  to  a  pretty  strict  regimen,  of 
which  some  curious  instances  presently  appeared.      The 
young  Richard  Saltonstall,  lately  elected  a  magistrate, 
had  written  a  treatise  against  the  Standing  Council  for 
Life,  which  he  had  delivered  to  Hathorne,  a  sort  of  leader 
of  the  deputies,  to  lay  before  the  General  Court.     But 
Hathorne,  with  the  fate  of  Stoughton  before  him,  hesi- 
tated to  do  it.     The  existence  of  this  treatise  presently 
leaked  out,  and  an  order  was  passed  to  bring  it  into 
court.      Some  passages  appeared  to  Winthrop  "  very  of- 
fensive and  unwarrantable  ;"  yet  the  deputies  resisted  all 
attempts  to  censure  the  author.      He  was  very  roughly 
answered,  however,  in  two  counter  treatises,  one  by  Dud- 
ley, the  other  by  one  of  the  ministers.     The  elders,  to 
whom  Saltonstall's  book  was   referred  by  the  General 
Court,  made  an  elaborate  report  upon  it,  lenient,  indeed, 


282  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  toward  Saltonstall,  but  justifying  the  Council  for  Life 

.  against  his  censures. 

1642.  Briscoe,  "a  rich  man,  a  tanner,"  but  not  a  church 
member,  and,  of  course,  not  a  freeman,  who  "  published 
underhand"  a-  treatise  against  taxation  for  the  support  of 
the  ministers,  did  not  escape  so  easily.  He  was  fined  ten 
pounds,  and  one  of  the  publishers  forty  shillings. 

A  transaction,  some  two  or  three  years  afterward,  in 
which  Saltonstall  was  concerned,  has  been  magnified  by 
too  precipitate  an  admiration  into  a  protest  on  the  part 
of  Massachusetts  against  the  African  slave  trade.  So 
far,  however,  from  any  such  protest  being  made,  at  the 
very  birth  of  the  foreign  commerce  of  New  England  the 
African  slave  trade  became  a  regular  business.  The 
ships  which  took  cargoes  of  staves  and  fish  to  Madeira 
and  the  Canaries  were  accustomed  to  touch  on  the 
coast  of  Guinea  "  to  trade  for  negroes,"  who  were  car- 
ried generally  to  Barbadoes  or  the  other  English  islands 
in  the  West  Indies,  the  demand  for  them  at  home  being 
but  small.  In  the  case  above  referred  to,  instead  of  buy- 
ing negroes  in  the  regular  course  of  traffic,  which,  un- 
der a  fundamental  law  of  Massachusetts  already  quot- 
ed, would  have  been  perfectly  legal,  the  crew  of  a  Bos- 
ton ship  joined  with  some  London  vessels  on  the  coast, 
and,  on  pretense  of  some  quarrel  with  the  natives,  landed 
a  "murderer" — the  expressive  name  of  a  small  piece  of 
cannon — attacked  a  negro  village  on  Sunday,  killed  many 
of  the  inhabitants,  and  made  a  few  prisoners,  two  of 
whom  fell  to  the  share  of  the  Boston  ship.  In  the  course 

1645.  of  a  lawsuit  between  the  master,  mate,  and  owners,  all 
this  story  came  out,  and  Saltonstall,  who  sat  as  one  of 
the  magistrates,  thereupon  presented  a  petition  to  the 
court,  in  which  he  charged  the  master  and  mate  with  a 
threefold  offense,  murder,  man-stealing,  and  Sabbath- 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.  283 

breaking ;  the  first  two  capital  by  the  fundamental  laws  CHAPTER 
of  Massachusetts,  and  all  of  them  "capital  by  the  law  of          ' 
God."     The  magistrates  doubted  their  authority  to  pun-  1642. 
ish  crimes  committed  on  the  coast  of  Africa  ;  but  they 
ordered  the  negroes  to  be  sent  back,  as  having  been  pro- 
cured not  honestly  by  purchase,  but  unlawfully  by  kid- 
napping. 

Ever  since  the  termination  of  the  Pequod  war  New 
England  had  been  disturbed  by  rumors  of  Indian  hostili- 
ties. An  opinion,  indeed,  had  gained  ground,  current 
at  the  same  time  in  Virginia,  that  the  Indians  were  of 
the  "  cursed  race  of  Ham,"  fit  only  to  be  rooted  out. 
This  cruel  opinion  had  been  reprobated  in  a  joint  letter, 
addressed  to  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  by  the  1640. 
magistrates  of  Connecticut,  New  Haven,  and  Aquiday, 
in  which  it  was  recommended  to  gain  over  the  Indians 
by  justice  and  kindness.  To  these  humane  sentiments 
the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  had  responded ;  but 
they  refused  to  include  the  magistrates  of  Aquiday  in 
their  answer,  or  to  have  any  intercourse  with  such  schis- 
matics. Presently  new  reports  began  to  spread — prop- 
agated, it  seems  probable,  by  Uncas,  sachem  of  the 
Mohegans,  a  restless  chief,  very  jealous  of  his  Narra- 
ganset  neighbors — rumors  which  so  wrought  upon  the 
magistrates  of  Connecticut  that  they  sent  to  invite  1642 
Massachusetts  to  join  with  them  in  a  sudden  attack  on  Sept. 
the  Indians.  By  way  of  precaution,  the  magistrates  of 
Massachusetts  ordered  Cutshamikin,  the  principal  sa- 
chem in  the  neighborhood  of  Boston,  to  be  arrested  and 
disarmed.  Passaconaway,  on  the  Merrimac,  was  also 
called  upon  to  deliver  up  his  guns,  which  he  did  readily, 
notwithstanding  some  violence  and  insults  to  his  family 
on  the  part  of  the  messengers,  for  which  the  magistrates 
ordered  an  apology  to  be  made.  Miantonimoh,  the  Nar- 


284  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

• 

CHAPTER  raganset  chief,  being  sent  for,  came  freely  to  Boston ; 

'       and   the    General   Court,    convinced   that   the    charges 

1 642.  against  him  were  false,  refused  to  take  up  arms.     Mian- 
tonimoh  demanded  justice  on   his   false   accusers,    but 
was  obliged  to  promise  not  to  make  war  on  Uncas  with- 
out first  obtaining  permission  to   do   so.     A  law  was 
passed  on  occasion  of  this  alarm,  requiring  all  the  towns 
to  keep  themselves  provided  with  powder — the  origin  of 
those  powder-houses,  perched  on  some  lonely  hill,  which 
formed,  in  past  years,  marked  objects  in  the  New  En- 
gland landscape. 

Meanwhile  letters  arrived  from  several  lords,  common- 
ers, and  ministers  in  England,  "  who  stood  for  the  inde- 
pendency of  the  churches,"  addressed  to  Cotton  of  Bos- 
ton, Hooker  of  Hartford,  and  Davenport  of  New  Haven, 
inviting  them  to  come  over  and  assist  in  the  famous  As- 
sembly of  Divines,  then  about  to  meet  at  Westminster. 
Cotton  "  apprehended  greatly  a  call  of  God  in  it."  So 
did  Davenport ;  but  his  church  could  not  spare  him. 
Hooker  thought  it  not  worth,  while  to  go  so  far  to  be  in 
a  small  minority,  since  it  was  evident  that  Presbyterian- 
ism  on  the  Scotch  model  was  chiefly  in  favor  with  the 
English  Puritans.  Letters  bringing  accounts  of  the 
breach  between  the  king  and  the  Parliament,  and  pres- 
ently of  the  commencement  of  the  civil  war,  caused  a 
final  relinquishment  of  the  idea  of  going. 

Applications  also  came  to  Massachusetts  from  Barba- 
does,  the  Leeward  Islands,  and  Virginia,  to  furnish  those 
colonies  with  faithful  ministers ;  and,  in  the  case  of 
Virginia,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  this  call  was  not  dis- 
regarded. The  West  Indies,  being  much  infested  by 
"Familists" — enthusiasts,  that  is,  of  the  Hutchinsonian 
species — did  not  seem  to  present  so  promising  a  field. 

1643.  At  the  next  Court  of  Elections,  notwithstanding  a 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.     £85 


vehement  sermon  from  Ezekiel  Rogers  in  favor  of  rota-  CHAPTER 

x. 
tion  in  office,  Winthrop  was  re-elected  governor.     A  late         ' 

order  of  the  House  of  Commons,  that  all  exports  and  im-  1643. 
ports  to  and  from  New  England  should  be  free  of  all    May- 
customs,  was  gratefully  received,  and  entered  on  the  rec- 
ords.     The  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  king  was  dropped. 
As  the  "  godly  Parliament,"  in  its  struggle  with  the 
king,  made  no  scruple  to  fight  under  the  red  cross,  the 
doubts  on  that  subject  presently  died  away,  and  the  En- 
glish flag  was  resumed. 

Massachusetts  was  now  divided  into  four  counties, 
Suffolk,  Middlesex,  Essex,  and  Norfolk,  the  latter  includ- 
ing the  New  Hampshire  towns. 

Some  progress  in  exploring  the  interior  had  already 
been  made.  Darby  Field,  an  Irishman,  with  two  Indian 
guides,  had  penetrated  to  and  ascended  the  White  Hills,  1642. 
whose  glistening  tops,  the  first  land  seen  on  approaching 
the  coast,  had  long  been  a  noted  landmark.  The  report 
he  brought  back  of  shining  stones  caused  divers  others 
to  travel  thither,  "  but  they  found  nothing  worthy  of 
their  pains."  Thomas  Gorges,  governor  of  Maine,  pad- 
dled up  the  Saco,  in  birch-bark  canoes,  as  far  as  Pigwag- 
get,  an  Indian  town,  whence  he  too  climbed  the  mount- 
ains, and  saw,  from  their  tops,  the  sources  of  the  Connec- 
ticut, the  Androscoggin,  the  Merrimac,  and  the  Saco. 

Massachusetts  having  thus  extended  itself  into  New 
Hampshire,  a  confederacy,  to  be  known  as  the  UNITED 
COLONIES  OF  NEW  ENGLAND,  was  entered  into  at  Bos-  1643. 
ton,  between  delegates  from  Plymouth,  Connecticut,  and    Maj' 
New  Haven  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  General  Court 
of  Massachusetts  on  the  other.      Supposed  dangers  from 
the  Indians,  and  their  quarrels  with  the  Dutch  of  Man- 
hattan, had  induced  the  people  of  Connecticut  to  with- 
draw their  former  objections  to  this  measure.     Two  com- 


286  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  missioners  from  each  colony  were  to  meet  annually,  or 
'       oftener,  if  necessary  ;   the  sessions  to  be  held  alternately 

1643.  at  Boston,  Hartford,  New  Haven,  and  Plymouth ;  but  Bos- 
ton was  to  have  two  sessions  for  one  at  each  of  the  other 
places.  The  commissioners,  all  of  whom  must  be  church 
members,  were  to  choose  a  president  from  among  them- 
selves, and  every  thing  was  to  be  decided  by  six  voices 
out  of  the  eight.  No  war  was  to  be  declared  by  either 
colony  without  the  consent  of  the  commissioners,  to  whose 
province  Indian  affairs  and  foreign  relations  were  espe- 
cially assigned.  The  sustentation  of  the  "  truth  and 
liberties  of  the  Gospel"  was  declared  to  be  one  great 
object  of  this  alliance.  All  war  expenses  were  to  be  a 
common  charge,  to  be  apportioned  according  to  the  num- 
ber of  male  inhabitants  in  each  colony.  Runaway  serv- 
ants and  fugitive  criminals  were  to  be  delivered  up,  a 
provision  afterward  introduced  into  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States ;  and  the  commissioners  soon  recom- 
mended, what  remained  ever  after  the  practice  of  New 
England,  and  ultimately  became,  also,  a  provision  of  the 
United  States  Constitution,  that  judgments  of  courts  of 
law  and  probates  of  wills  in  each  colony  should  have  full 
faith  and  credit  in  all  the  others.  The  commissioners 
from  Massachusetts,  as  representing  by  far  the  most  pow- 
erful colony  of  the  alliance,  claimed  an  honorary  prece- 
dence, which  the  others  readily  conceded. 

Plymouth,  though  far  outgrown  by  Massachusetts,  and 
even  by  Connecticut,  had  made,  however,  some  progress. 

1639.  It  now  contained  seven  towns,  and  had  lately  adopted  a 
representative  system.  But  the  old  town  of  Plymouth 
was  in  decay,  the  people  being  drawn  off  to  the  new  set- 
tlements. Bradford  had  remained  governor,  except  for 
four  years,  during  two  of  which  he  had  been  relieved  by 
Edward  Winslow,  and  the  other  two  by  Thomas  Prince. 


NEW  ENGLAND   DURING  THE   LONG  PARLIAMENT.  287 

New  Haven  was,  perhaps,  the  weakest  member  of  the  CHAPTER 

alliance.     Besides  that  town,  the  inhabitants  of  which 

were  principally  given  to  commerce,  there  were  two  1643. 
others,  Milford  and  Guilford,  agricultural  settlements ; 
SouthoJd,  at  the  eastern  extremity  of  Long  Island,  also 
acknowledged  the  jurisdiction  of  New  Haven,  and  a  new 
settlement  had  recently  been  established  at  Stamford, 
whither  Underbill  had  removed,  unable  to  find  the  means 
of  support  in  Massachusetts.  Patrick,  Underbill's  com- 
panion in  arms,  not  able  to  accommodate  himself  to  the 
strict  manners  of  the  Puritan  school,  had  settled  at  Green- 
wich, still  west  of  Stamford ;  but  the  settlers  there  had 
been  persuaded  to  submit  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Dutch, 
who  had  also  recently  broken  up  a  New  Haven  trading 
post,  and  attempted  settlement  on  the  Delaware. 

The  colony  of  Connecticut,  not  limited  to  the  towns 
on  the  river,  to  which  Farmington  had  already  been  add- 
ed, included  also  Stratford  and  Fairfield,  on  the  coast 
of  the  Sound,  west  of  New  Haven.  Ludlow,  the  found- 
er first  of  Dorchester  and  afterward  of  Windsor,  had 
been  the  leader  in  the  settlement  of  Fairfield,  having 
become  acquainted  with  that  country  while  in  pursuit 
of  the  flying  Pequods.  The  town  of  Southampton,  on 
Long  Island,  acknowledged  also  the  jurisdiction  of  Con-  1644. 
necticut.  Fort  Saybrook,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river, 
was  still  an  independent  settlement,  and  Fenwick,  as  the 
head  of  it,  became  a  party  to  the  confederation.  But  the 
next  year  he  sold  out  his  interest  to  Connecticut,  into 
which  Say  brook  was  absorbed.  Returning  to  England, 
Fenwick  became  a  colonel  in  the  Parliamentary  army. 
Gardiner  had  settled  across  the  Sound,  at  Gardiner* s 
Island.  The  south  line  of  Massachusetts,  as  far  as  Con- 
necticut River,  had  been  run,  under  authority  of  that  1642. 
colony,  by  two  "  mathematicians."  It  started  from  a 


I 
288  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  point,  selected  in  the  terms  of  the  charter,  three  miles 
south  of  the  southernmost  part  of  Charles  River ;   but, 

1643.  instead  of  running  due  west,  as  it  should  have  done,  it 
deviated  so  far  to  the  south  as  to  include  the  present 
towns  of  Enfield  and  Suffield,  reckoned  at  that  time  a 
part  of  Springfield,  and  for  a  century  afterward  attached 
to  Massachusetts. 

Gorges's  province  of  Maine  was  not  received  into  the 
New  England  alliance,  "  because  the  people  there  ran  a 
different  course  both  in  their  ministry  and  civil  admin- 
istration." The  same  objection  applied  with  still  greater 
force  to  Aquiday  and  Providence.  By  omitting  to  ex- 
communicate its  exiled  members,  except  in  the  case  of 
Mrs.  Hutchinson,  the  Boston  Church  still  claimed  a  sort 
of  spiritual  authority  over  them,  and  had  been  not  a  lit- 
tle piqued  at  their  repeated  refusals  to  submit  to  it. 
A  son  and  son-in-law  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  the  latter  a 
young  minister  from  the  West  Indies,  whom  she  was 
suspected  of  having  fascinated  by  witchcraft,  were  ar- 

1641.  rested  at  Boston  while  on  a  visit  there,  and  heavily  fined 
and  imprisoned  on  account  of  a  letter  which  one  of  them 
had  written,  in  which  the  Massachusetts  churches  were 
spoken  of  as  "  anti-Christian."  Communications  were 
on  foot  between  Coddington  and  the  Massachusetts  mag- 
istrates, and,  hardly  thinking  herself  safe  at  Aquiday, 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  family,  her  husband  being  dead, 
removed  to  "  Ann  Hook,"  now  Pelham^  beyond  Green- 
wich, and  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Dutch.  A  war 
soon  after  broke  out  between  the  Dutch  and  the  Indians, 
during  which  these  unfortunate  exiles,  to  the  number  of 
eighteen,  were  massacred,  except  a  grand-daughter,  who 

1643.  was  carried  off  a  prisoner.  "  God's  hand  is  apparently 
seen  herein,  to  pick  out  this  woeful  woman,  to  make 
her,  and  those  belonging  to  her,  an  unheard-of  heavy  ex- 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.  £89 

ample !"      Such  was  the  exultation  of  the  pious  Welde  CHAPTER 

over  Mrs.  Hutehinson's  tragical  end.      She  left  a  son  at 

Boston  who  did  not  share  her  exile,  and  whose  posterity  1643. 
became  distinguished  in  the  history  of  the  colony. 

Roger  Williams  and  the  settlers  at  Providence  were 
even  more  obnoxious  than  those  of  Rhode  Island.  In- 
deed, it  was  some  movement  at  Aquiday  toward  a  recon- 
ciliation with  Massachusetts  that  had  precipitated  the 
flight  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson.  Williams,  on  the  other  hand, 
had  embraced  the  doctrines  of  the  Anabaptists,  and  being  1639, 
first  dipped  by  one  of  the  brethren,  and  then  himself  dip- 
ping the  others,  had  become  the  founder  and  teacher  of 
the  first  Baptist  Church  in  America.  But  he  soon  left  it, 
became  a  "  seeker,"  and,  after  many  doubts  as  to  au- 
thority for  any  ecclesiastical  organization,  finally  con- 
cluded that  none  was  lawful,  or,  at  least,  necessary. 
Though  he  continued  to  employ  the  phraseology  of  the 
Puritans,  he  seems  ultimately  to  have  renounced  all 
formalities  of  worship,  having  adopted  the  opinion  that 
Christianity  was  but  another  name  for  humanity.  "  To 
be  content  with  food  and  raiment ;  to  mind,  not  our 
own,  but  every  man  the  things  of  another ;  yea,  and  to 
suffer  wrong,  and  to  part  with  what  we  judge  to  be  right, 
yea,  our  own  lives,  and,  as  poor  women  martyrs  have 
said,  as  many  as  there  be  hairs  upon  our  heads,  for  the 
name  of  God  and  the  Son  of  God's  sake — this  is  human- 
ity, yea,  this  is  Christianity ;  the  rest  is  but  formality 
and  picture-courteous  idolatry,  and  Jewish  and  popish 
blasphemy  against  the  Christian  religion."  So  Williams 
expressed  himself  many  years  afterward,  toward  the  end 
of  his  life,  in  a  letter  to  Mason,  hero  of  the  Pequod  war, 
and  chief  military  officer  of  Connecticut. 

But,  though  Williams  abandoned  his  Baptist  opinions, 
others  took  them  up.     The  Lady  Moody,  "  a  wise  and 
1.  T 


290 


HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   SlATES. 


CHAPTER  anciently  religious  woman,"  who  had  purchased  Hum- 
phrey's plantation   at  Lynn,  being  dealt  with  by  the 

1643.  church  at  Salem  for  errors  of  this  sort,  to  avoid  further 
trouble  removed  to  Long  Island,  where  she  settled,  with 
her  son  Sir  Henry,  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Dutch. 
Others  infected  with  the  same  opinions  removed,  some  to 
Providence,  and  some  to  New  Netherland. 

Not  content  with  these  voluntary  departures,  a  law 

1644.  was  presently  published  in  Massachusetts  inflicting  ban- 
Nov.  13.  ishment  upon  all  such  as,  after  "due  time  and  means 

of  conviction,  continue  obstinate"  in  opposing  infant  bap- 
tism. At  Aquiday,  also,  a  Baptist  church  was  estab- 
lished— the  second  in  America — at  the  head  of  which 
was  John  Clarke.  These  Anabaptists  appear  to  have  re- 
moved to  the  lower  end  of  the  island,  and  to  have  formed 
a  settlement  there,  which  they  called  Newport,  Codding- 
ton's  original  settlement  at  the  upper  end  of  the  island 
being  known  as  Portsmouth. 

Samuel  Gorton  was  inferior  to  Roger  Williams  and 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  in  talent  and  acquirements,  but  as  an 
heresiarch  he  was  hardly  less  to  be  dreaded.  Originally 
a  London  clothier,  he  had  made  himself  obnoxious  to  the 
magistrates  of  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth  by  preten- 
sions to  a  sort  of  transcendental  enlightenment  in  spirit- 
ual matters.  He  called  himself  "  professor  of  the  mys- 
teries of  Christ,"  taught  that  in  himself  and  other  true 
believers  "  the  child  is  born,  the  son  is  given,"  and  blessed 
God  that  he  was  not  brought  up  "in  the  schools  of  hu- 
man learning."  Ejected  from  Plymouth  with  much  hard 
usage,  as  he  alleged,  being  turned  out  of  his  house  in  the 
midst  of  a  snow-storm,  with  his  wife  and  infant  child,  the 
child  sick  of  the  measles,  the  wife  "as  tenderly  brought 
up  as  any  man's  wife  in  that  town  ;"  expelled  even  from 
Aquiday,  where  he  was  publicly  flogged  on  a  charge  of 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE   LONG  PARLIAMENT, 

disrespect  toward  the  magistrates,  he  took  refuge  at  last  CHAPTER 

in  the  south  part  of  Providence.     Here,  too,  he  made J 

himself  obnoxious  to  some  of  the  settlers,  and  a  disturb-  1641. 
ance  arose  which  Williams  was  with  difficulty  able  to 
appease.      Some  of  the  inhabitants,  headed  by  one  Ben- 
edict Arnold,  even  went  so  far  as  to  invite  the  interfer- 
ence of  Massachusetts,  which  was  promised  if  they  would 
submit  to  her  jurisdiction,  or,  if  they  preferred  it,  to  that 
of  Plymouth.      Several  of  them  accordingly  went  to  Bos- 
ton and  submitted  ;  and  a  warrant  was  presently  sent  to  1642. 
Gorton,  citing  him  to  answer  to  their  complaint.     For 
the  sake  of  peace,  and  to  escape  this  threatened  danger, 
after  returning  a  rude  answer  addressed  to  the  "  great  idol 
general  of  Massachusetts,"  Gorton,  with  a  number  of  fol- 
lowers, removed  southerly  across  the  Pawtuxet,  and,  hav-  J643. 
ing  purchased  of  Miantonimoh,  for  one  hundred  and  forty-     Jan- 
four  fathoms  of  wampum,  a  tract  called  Shawomet,  they 
commenced  an  independent  settlement  there,  the  third 
within  the  limits  of  the  present  state  of  Rhode  Island. 

Alarmed  at  the  threatened  interference  of  Massachu- 
setts, and  the  danger  that  her  spiritual  despotism  might 
be  extended  over  all  her  neighbors,  Roger  Williams  re- 
solved to  proceed  to  England,  there  to  solicit  a  charter — 
a  step  suggested  the  year  before  by  the  people  of  Aqui- 
day.  Not  being  allowed  to  visit  Boston,  he  went  to  Man-  Mawa. 
hattan,  and  obtained  passage  there  by  way  of  Holland. 

Not  long  after  the  departure  of  Williams,  two  inferior 
sachems  from  the  neighborhood  of  Shawomet  complained  June, 
to  the  magistrates  of  Massachusetts,  through  Benedict 
Arnold,  their  agent  and  interpreter,  one  of  those  inhabit- 
ants of  Providence  who  had  lately  submitted  to  the  Mas- 
sachusetts jurisdiction,  that  Gorton  had  wrongfully  dispos- 
sessed them  of  their  lands.  One  of  them  had  signed  the 
deed  of  conveyance ;  but  he  alleged  having  done  so  through 


292  rHISTORY   OP  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

the  compulsion  of  Miantonimoh.  The  Massachusetts  mag- 


'.^  istrates  entered  very  zealously  into  the  matter.  They  sen* 
1643.  f<«  ,  Miantonimoh  ;  adjudged  him  to  have  no  title  to  the 
land,  or  power  over  the  sachems  —  wrongfully,  as  Williams 
alleges  ;  and,  having  made  this  decision,  they  received 
from  those  same  sachems  a  submission  of  themselves  and 
their  territory  to  the  authority  of  Massachusetts,  with  a 
promise,  on  their  part,  to  obey  the  ten  commandments. 
This  submission,  though  vaunted  by  Winthrop  as  "  the 
fruits  of  our  prayers,  the  first  fruits  of  our  hopes,"  a  proof 
that  "  the  Lord  was  about  to  bring  the  Indians  to  civility, 
and  so  to  conversion,"  seems,  however,  to  have  been  but 
a  mere  contrivance  for  obtaining  some  pretense  to  dis- 
possess Gorton,  or  to  compel  him  and  his  followers  to  sub- 
mit to  the  authority  of  Massachusetts.  Arnold  was  al- 
lowed four  pounds  for  his  services  in  this  business. 

Miantonimoh,  it  is  possible,  might  not  have  quietly 
submitted  to  this  interference,  but  that  unfortunate  chief 
was,  shortly  after,  effectually  disposed  of.  His  virulent 
July  enemy,  Uncas,  attacked  one  of  his  subordinate  chiefs,  of 
which  he  complained  to  the  governors  of  Massachusetts 
and  Connecticut,  requesting  liberty  to  make  war  in  re- 
turn. He  was  told,  if  Uncas  had  injured  him  and  would 
not  give  satisfaction,  "  to  take  his  own  course  ;"  and,  ac- 
AugHst  cordingly,  he  invaded  the  Mohegan  territories,  but  was 
defeated,  betrayed,  and  taken  prisoner.  A  present  of 
wampum,  sent  by  the  Narraganset  chiefs,  and  an  urgent 
and  threatening  message  from  Gorton,  prevailed  on  Un- 
cas to  spare  the  captive's  life,  and  to  carry  him  prisoner 
to  Hartford.  His  fate  presently  became  a  principal  sub- 
ject of  discussion  in  the  second  meeting  of  the  Commis- 
Sept  sioners  for  the  United  Colonies,  held  at  Boston.  His 
enterprise  and  sagacity  were  dreaded,  and,  perhaps,  his 
friendship  for  Williams  and  Gorton  weighed  in  the  bal 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.  2.93 

ance  against  him.  His  important  aid  in  the  Pequod  war,  CHAPTER 
and  his  uniform  friendliness  to  the  colonists,  were  forgot-  ' 
ten.  He  was  denounced  as  "  of  a  turbulent  and  proud  1643. 
spirit,  which  would  never  be  at  rest."  The  commis- 
sioners were  all  of  opinion  "  that  it  would  not  be  safe  to 
set  him  at  liberty."  A  pretense  was  even  sought  and 
found  for  putting  him  to  death.  Uncas  had  formerly 
charged  Miantonimoh  with  attempting  to  bewitch  and 
to  assassinate  him ;  and,  after  consulting  with  five  of 
"  the  most  judicious  elders,"  it  was  agreed,  under  color 
of  these  charges,  that  the  Connecticut  commissioners,  on 
their  return  to  Hartford,  should  deliver  up  Miantonimoh 
to  Uncas,  with  directions  to  take  him  out  of  the  limits 
of  the  colony,  and  to  do  execution  upon  him ;  but  with- 
out torture.  Two  colonists  were  to  attend,  on  behalf  of 
the  commissioners,  to  see  the  execution  done.  If  Uncas 
refused,  Miantonimoh  was  to  be  sent  prisoner  to  Boston. 
But  there  was  no  danger  of  refusal.  The  Mohegan  chief 
gladly  undertook  a  commission  so  consonant  to  his  re- 
vengeful feelings  ;  and,  with  his  own  hand,  the  moment 
Miantonimoh  had  passed  the  border,  he  struck  a  hatchet 
into  his  head.  Having  cut  a  piece  from  the  shoulder  of 
his  fallen  enemy,  Uncas  eagerly  devoured  it,  declaring 
that  it  made  his  heart  strong,  and  was  the  sweetest  mor- 
sel he  ever  ate  !  To  protect  Uncas  from  the  vengeance 
of  the  Narragansets,  he  was  furnished,  at  the  expense  of 
the  United  Colonies,  with  a  guard  of  fourteen  musketeers. 

On  the  spot  where  Miantonimoh  thus  fell,  a  block  of 
granite  has  lately  been  placed,  inscribed  with  his  name. 

While  that  unfortunate  chief  was  thus  rewarded  for 
his  former  aid  and  friendship,  Gorton  and  his  companions 
were  summoned  to  Boston  to  answer  to  the  complaints 
of  the  two  sachems.  They  gave  a  verbal  reply,  refusing 
to  come  ;  whereupon  the  Massachusetts  magistrates  sent 


294  HISTORY   OF    THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  three  commissioners,  Captain  Cook,  afterward  a  colonel 

..-  ..  •  j,  •  w*  •  • 

•  .'..    in   Cromwell's   army,   Lieutenant   Atherton,    afterward 
1643.  major  general  of-  Massachusetts,  and  Lieutenant  John- 
son, whom  we  shall  presently  meet  with  as  an  author 
and  historian,  attended  by  forty  armed  men,  and  author- 
ized to  demand  and  receive  satisfaction,  or,  if  it  was  re- 
fused, to  use  force.     Gorton  sent  a  letter  to  the  commis- 
sioners bidding  them  welcome  if  they  came  as  friends, 
but  warning  them  not  to  approach  in  hostile  array  at  their 
peril.      The  commissioners  returned  a  truculent  answer  ; 
the  women  and  children  fled  to  the  woods,  while  the 
men  of  Shawomet,  with  arms  in  their  hands,  established 
themselves  in  a  fortified  house.    By  the  mediation  of  some 
Providence  men,  a  parley  was  had.     Gorton  alleged  that, 
as  Massachusetts  was  a  party  to  the  dispute,  she  could  not 
be  an  equal  judge  ;  he  therefore  proposed  to  refer  the  con- 
troversy as  to  the  title  to  Shawomet  to  arbitrators,  if 
"  some  of  them  might  be  of  Providence  or  Aquiday,"  and 
he  offered  the  cattle  belonging  to  his  party  as  security,  to 
abide  the  decision.     This  reasonable  offer  was  transmit- 
ted to  Massachusetts,  but,  by  advice  of  the  elders,  was 
Oct.     haughtily  rejected.     It  was  not,  the  elders  said,  a  mere 
question  of  title  to  lands,  but  a  question  of  blasphemy,  and 
blasphemy  could  not  be  compounded.      Trenches  were 
opened  against  the  fortified  house,  which  was  repeatedly 
set  on  fire.     Three  of  the  inmates  escaped  during  the 
siege ;  the  rest  called  a  new  parley,  and  agreed  to  go  with 
the  commissioners  to  Boston,  provided  they  might  go  as 
"free  men  and  neighbors."     They  were  treated,  however, 
Ocfc  13.  as  prisoners  of  war,  and  were  brought  to  Massachusetts, 
to  the  governor's  house,  "in  a  military  order,  the  soldiers 
being  in  two  files,  and  after  every  five  or  six  soldiers  a 
prisoner."     "  Having  conferred  privately  with  the  com- 
missioners, the  governor  caused  the  prisoners  to  be  brought 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.  £95 

before  him  in  his  hall,  where  was  a  great  assembly,  and  CHAPTER 

there  laid  before  them  their  contemptuous  carriage  to- 

ward  us,  and  their  obstinacy  against  all  the  fair  means  1643. 
and  moderation  we  had  used  to  reform  them  and  bring 
them  to  do  right,  and  how  the  Lord  had  now  justly  de- 
livered them  into  our  hands."  "They  pleaded  in  their 
excuse  that  they  were  not  of  our  jurisdiction,  and  that, 
though  they  had  now  yielded  themselves  to  come  and  an- 
swer before  us,  yet  they  yielded  not  as  prisoners."  "  The 
governor  replied  that  they  were  brought  to  him  as  taken 
in  war ;  but  if  they  could  plead  any  other  quarter  or 
agreement,  we  must  and  would  perform  it" — "  to  which," 
says  Winthrop,  "  they  made  no  answer."  "  So  the  gov- 
ernor committed  them  to  the  marshal  to  convey  to  the 
common  prison,  and  gave  order  that  they  should  be  well 
provided  for  both  for  lodging  and  diet.  Then  he  went 
forth  again  with  the  captain,  and  the  soldiers  gave  him 
three  volleys  of  shot,  and  so  departed  to  the  inn,  where 
the  governor  had  appointed  some  refreshing  to  be  pro- 
vided for  them  above  their  wages."  These  wages  were 
ten  shillings,  or  near  two  dollars  and  a  half  a  week,  the 
soldiers  to  victual  themselves — "  very  liberal,"  says  Win- 
throp, "  as  is  needful  in  such  commonwealths  as  desire 
to  be  served  by  volunteers."  The  Sunday  after  their 
arrival,  having  refused  to  attend  the  forenoon  public  serv- 
ice, the  magistrates  determined  that  in  the  afternoon 
they  should  be  compelled.  They  agreed,  however,  to  go 
without  force,  "so  they  might  have  liberty,  after  sermon, 
to  speak  if  they  had  occasion."  "  The  magistrates'  an- 
swer was,  that  they  did  leave  the  ordering  of  things  in 
the  church  to  the  elders,  but  there  was  no  doubt  but  they 
might  have  leave  to  speak,  so  as  they  spake  the  words  k 

of  truth  and  sobriety."     The  prisoners  accordingly  came 
to  the  afternoon  service,  and  were  "  placed  in  the  fourth 


296  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  seat,  right  before  the  elders."  "  Mr.  Cotton,  in  his  ordi- 
'  nary  text,  taught  out  of  Acts,  xix.,  of  Demetrius  pleading 
1643.  for  Diana's  silver  shrines."  "  After  sermon,  Gorton  de- 
sired leave  to  speak,  which  being  granted,  he  repeated 
the  points  of  Mr.  Cotton's  sermon,  and,  coming  to  that  of 
the  silver  shrines,  he  said,  that  in  the  church  there  was 
nothing  now  but  Christ,  so  that  all  the  ordinances,  min- 
isters, sacraments,  &c.,  were  but  men's  inventions  for 
pomp  and  show,  and  no  other  than  those  silver  shrines 
of  Diana."  He  held,  also,  "that  Christ  was  incarnate 
in  Adam,  and  was  the  image  of  God  wherein  Adam  was 
created."  Another  of  his  doctrines  was,  "  that  the  only 
heaven  is  in  the  hearts  of  the  good,  and  the  only  hell  in 
the  hearts  of  the  wicked." 

Nov  When  the  General  Court  came  together,  the  prisoners 
were  subjected  to  a  long  inquisitorial  examination,  and 
put  on  trial  for  their  lives,  on  the  charge  of  being  "blas- 
phemous enemies  of  true  religion  and  civil  government, 
particularly  within  this  jurisdiction."  Gorton  made  an 
ingenious  defense,  giving  a  symbolical  and  transcendental 
interpretation  to  his  more  offensive  expressions  ;  but  this 
did  not  avail.  Seven  of  the  prisoners  were  found  guilty, 
Gorton  included ;  four  others  were  discharged,  two  of 
them  "  on  a  small  ransom,  as  prisoners  taken  in  war."  A 
majority  of  the  magistrates  were  zealous  for  putting  Gor- 
ton to  death  ;  but  the  deputies  dissented.  The  sentence 
agreed  upon  was  the  separate  confinement  of  the  seven 
culprits,  in  seven  different  towns,  there  to  be  kept  at  hard 
labor,  in  irons,  under  pain  of  death  if  by  speech  or  writing 
they  attempted  to  publish  or  maintain  any  of  their  "  blas- 
phemous and  abominable  heresies."  Their  cattle,  to  the 
number  of  eighty,  were  seized  to  pay  the  expenses  of 
their  arrest  and  trial,  assessed  at  £  160.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  threat  of  death  hanging  over  their  heads,  it  was 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.  £97 

soon  found  that  these  stubborn  enthusiasts  were  making  CHAPTER 
converts,    especially    among    the   women.      They   were 
therefore  ordered,  at  the  next  court,  to  depart  out  of  the  1644. 
jurisdiction  within  fourteen  days,  and  not  to  return  ei-  March- 
ther  to  Massachusetts  or  Shawomet  under  pain  of  death. 

Having  obtained  from  the  Narraganset  sachems,  upon  April  19. 
whose  spirits  the  death  of  Miantonimoh  lay  heavy,  a  deed 
submitting  themselves  and  their  country  to  the  king,  Gor- 
ton sailed  from  Manhattan  for  England,  there  to  seek  re- 
dress. His  mystic  eloquence  recommended  him  to  some 
among  the  Independents  ;  and  though  the  Presbyterian 
clergy  endeavored  to  stop  him  as  not  being  "a  univers- 
ity man,"  he  was  duly  recognized  as  a  "  minister  of  the 
Gospel,"  and  preached  as  such  in  London  and  elsewhere. 
These  high-handed  proceedings  on  the  part  of  Massa- 
chusetts have  been  much  misrepresented  by  most  New 
England  historians,  who  have  overwhelmed  Gorton  with 
all  sorts  of  reproaches.  The  account  here  given,  extract- 
ed from  Winthrop's  journal,  can  hardly  be  suspected  of 
undue  partiality  to  the  sufferers. 

We  have  formerly  seen  an  important  political  revolu- 
tion in  Massachusetts  brought  about  by  the  laws  in  re- 
lation to  stray  swine.  A  particular  case  under  those 
laws  led  now  to  a  modification  in  the  form  of  the  Gen- 
eral Court.  Robert  Kean,  brother-in-law  of  Dudley,  a 
leading  Boston  merchant  and  church  member,  captain  of 
the  "  ancient  and  honorable  artillery,"  an  aristocratic 
corps  recently  instituted,  had  been  sued  by  a  poor  wom- 
an for  having  killed  and  appropriated  her  stray  pig.  She 
was  instigated  to  this  suit,  according  to  Winthrop,  by 
one  Story,  a  young  London  merchant,  who  lodged  in  her 
house,  and  whom  Kean  had  caused  to  be  summoned  be- 
fore the  magistrates  as  "  living  under  suspicion."  Kean 
cast  the  woman  in  costs,  and,  becoming  plaintiff  in  his 


298  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  turn,  had  recovered  twenty  pounds  in  a  suit  for  slander 

against  her  and  Story.     But  Story  was  not  so  easily  to 

1643.  be  put  down ;  he  "  searcheth  town  and  country  to  find 
matter  against  Captain  Kean  about  this  stray  sow  ;"  and, 
having  got  one  of  Kean's  witnesses  to  confess  that  he  had 

1642.  sworn  falsely,  he  petitioned  the  General  Court  for  a  re- 
May*    hearing.     Kean  was  of  "  ill  report"  in  the  country  on 

account  of  his  "  hard  dealings"  in  the  way  of  trade,  for 
which  he  had  been  fined  at  a  previous  court,  and  cen- 
sured by  the  church.  In  this  state  of  public  sentiment 
against  him,  the  petition  for  a  re-hearing  was  favorably 
entertained.  After  a  seven  days'  trial,  two  of  the  magis- 
trates and  fifteen  of  the  deputies  pronounced  an  opinion 
in  favor  of  reversing  the  former  decision,  while  seven  mag- 
istrates and  eight  deputies  went  for  sustaining  it.  This 
result,  as  it  prevented  any  decision,  raised  a  fresh  outcry 
against  the  negative  voice  of  the  assistants,  to  appease 
which  the  governor  and  magistrates  published  a  "  True 
State  of  the  Case,"  to  which,  however,  Story  put  out  a 
"  Counter  Statement."  An  "  Answer"  to  this  counter 
statement  was  presently  drawn  up,  and  the  whole  mat- 
ter was  discussed  at  a  meeting  of  elders,  magistrates,  and 
deputies,  at  which  a  reconciliation  was  attempted.  The 
two  dissentient  magistrates  were  Bellingham  and  Salton- 
stall,  the  latter  of  whom  had  not  yet  forgotten  the  affair 
of  his  treatise  against  the  Standing  Council.  By  the  ef- 
forts of  the  elders  he  was  now  reconciled  to  Winthrop, 

1643.  but  Bellingham  stood  out.     At  the   next  court  Story 
May>    presented  a  new  petition  for  a  re-hearing,  and  the  whole 

quarrel  threatened  to  revive.  The  suit  was  finally  com- 
promised by  Kean's  releasing  the  damages  he  had  recov- 
ered ;  but  the  discussion  about  the  assistants'  negative 
continued,  and  the  deputies  generally  were  very  earnest 
against  it.  Winthrop  wrote  a  tract  in  its  favor,  and 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.  £99 

when  that  tract  was  replied  to,  he  put  out  a  rejoinder  CHAPTER 
to  the  reply.     One  of  the  elders,  in  a  small  treatise,         ' 
"  handled  the  question  scholastically  and  religiously,  lay-  1644. 
ing  down  the  several  forms  of  government,  both  simple 
and  mixed,  and  the  true  form  of  our  government,  and  the 
unavoidable  change  into  a  democracy  if  the  negative  voice 
were  taken  away."     The  magistrates,  with  much  ado, 
so  far  carried  their  point  as  to  succeed  in  retaining  their 
negative,  and  they  sat  thenceforward  as  a  separate  house ;   March, 
but  it  was  agreed  that  when  the  two  houses  differed  in  the 
decision  of  suits,  the  majority  of  the  whole  court  should 
decide. 

Razzillai,  late  governor  of  Acadie  for  the  Company  of 
New  France,  had  been  succeeded  in  that  office  by 
D'Aulney  de  Charnise,  known  in  New  England  as  M. 
D'Aulney.  Besides  La  Have  and  Port  Royal,  D'Aulney 
occupied  the  trading  post  on  the  Penobscot,  formerly  cap- 
tured from  the  Plymouth  people,  where  he  established, 
also,  a  Franciscan  mission  for  the  conversion  of  the  In- 
dians. But  he  had  a  rival  and  an  enemy  in  La  Tour, 
whose  father,  a  Huguenot,  had  been  one  of  the  earliest 
French  adventurers  in  Acadie.  Taken  prisoner  by  Kirk, 
whose  invasion  of  Acadie  has  been  formerly  mentioned, 
the  elder  La  Tour  had  agreed  to  assist  in  reducing  Nova 
Scotia,  and  had  been  made  a  baronet  of  that  province  by 
Sir  William  Alexander,  receiving  at  the  same  time  a 
large  grant  of  territory.  La  Tour,  the  son,  who  pro- 
fessed to  be  a  Catholic,  had  declined  to  enter  into  his 
father's  schemes ;  but,  besides  the  posts  which  he  held 
tinder  French  grants,  he  inherited,  also,  his  father's  Nova 
Scotia  claims — invalid,  indeed,  under  the  cession  of  Nova 
Scotia  to  France,  but  sufficient  groundwork  for  a  claim 
on  the  part  of  La  Tour  to  good  will  and  assistance  from 
the  English  colonists.  The  quarrel  between  La  Tour 


300  HISTORY   OF    THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  and  D'Aulney  was  chiefly  occasioned,  no  doubt,  by  ri- 
valry  in  trade,  though  La  Tour,  who  claimed  the  rank 

1643.  of  a  nobleman,  complained  that  a  man  of  D'Aulney's  in- 
ferior birth,  a  mere  former  clerk  of  Razzillai,  should 
have  been  made  governor  over  his  head.  The  dispute 
between  these  rival  traders  was  presently  carried  to  the 
French  court,  where  La  Tour  obtained  a  royal  letter 
confirming  to  him  the  possession  of  his  fort  and  trading 
house  at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  John's,  together  with  the 
whole  Acadien  peninsula  except  Port  Royal  and  La  Have. 

1641.  D'Aulney  procured,  however,  some  three  years  after,  a 
royal  letter  to  arrest  his  rival  and  send  him  to  France. 
La  Tour  had  formerly  had  some  sharp  encounters  with 
the  New  England  traders ;  it  was  he  who  had  broken 
up  the  Plymouth  trading  house  at  Machias.  But,  find- 
ing himself  in  a  precarious  position,  and  his  intercourse 
with  France  in  danger  of  being  cut  off,  he  presently  sent 
a  messenger  to  Massachusetts,  asking  assistance  against 
D'Aulney,  and  proposing  free  trade  and  a  supply  of  goods 
from  London  through  the  Boston  merchants,  and  the 
shipment  of  furs  thither  by  the  same  conveyance.  A 
Boston  ship  commenced  a  trade  with  St.  John's,  and 
La  Tour's  wife  obtained  passage  at  Boston  for  France ; 
whereupon  D'Aulney  sent  word  that  La  Tour  was  a  rebel, 
and  that  he  should  seize  all  vessels  trading  with  him. 

j.643.       La  Tour   himself  entered   Boston   harbor   the   next 

May  4.  Sprmg  in  a  large  armed  ship  full  of  men,  and  sent  a  boat 
ashore  at  an  island  where  Governor  Winthrop  and  his 
family  were  residing.  The  sudden  appearance  of  this 
vessel  caused  a  great  alarm.  The  townspeople  ran  to 
arms,  and  three  shallops  were  fitted  out  to  escort  the 
governor  home.  La  Tour,  however,  came  as  a  suppliant. 
This  vessel,  sent  from  Rochelle  by  La  Tour's  wife,  an 
active  assistant  in  his  affairs,  had  not  been  able  to  enter 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.  3Q1 

the  harbor  of  St.  John's,  which  D'Aulney  was  blockading  CHAPTER 
with  two  ships,  three  pinnaces,  a  galliot,  and  five  hundred  ' 
men.  So  La  Tour  had  stolen  out  in  his  shallop,  got  on  1643. 
board,  and  steered  for  Boston.  He  exhibited  a  commis- 
sion and  letters,  which  seemed  to  show  that  he  still  had 
interest  in  France.  He  also  asked  and  obtained  leave 
to  land  and  refresh  his  men,  but  with  the  restriction  pf 
landing  them  in  small  companies,  "  that  our  women,  &c., 
might  not  be  affrighted."  A  "  training  day  soon  falling 
out,"  and  La  Tour  having  asked  permission  to  exercise 
his  soldiers  on  shore,  by  leave  of  the  magistrates  he 
landed  forty  men  in  full  equipments.  "They  were 
brought  into  the  field  by  our  train-band,  consisting  of 
one  hundred  and  fifty,  and  in  the  forenoon  they  only  be- 
held our  men  exercise.  When  they  had  dined — La 
Tour  and  his  officers  with  our  officers,  and  his  soldiers 
invited  home  by  the  private  soldiers — in  the  afternoon 
they  were  permitted  to  exercise,  our  governor  and  other 
of  the  magistrates  coming  then  into  the  field,  and  all 
ours  stood  and  beheld  them.  They  were  very  expert  in 
their  postures  and  motions  ;"-but  one  of  their  maneuvers, 
representing  the  preparation  for  a  'sudden  attack,  greatly 
frightened  the  women  and  children,  and  probably  some 
of  the  men  also.  Many,  indeed,  judged  it  highly  im- 
prudent to  allow  such  a  body  of  popish  soldiers  to  land 
in  the  town.  La  Tour  ingratiated  himself  with  some 
of  the  Boston  merchants,  and,  though  he  hardly  pre- 
tended to  be  a  Huguenot,  he  put  on  a  great  air  of  piety, 
went  regularly  to  meetings  and  lectures,  and  earnestly 
entreated  Winthrop  to  allow  him  to  charter  vessels  and 
hire  men  for  the  relief  of  St.  John's. 

Neither  the  General  Court  nor  the  Commissioners  for 
the  United  Colonies,  to  whose  province  the  affair  prop- 
erly belonged,  were  called  together,  as  they  should  have 


302  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  been  on  this  occasion.  Winthrop,  however,  did  not  act 
'  without  consulting  the  magistrates  and  elders  ;  but  they 
1643.  were  by  no  means  unanimous  in  their  advice.  Some  of 
them  opposed  any  "popish  leagues,"  quoting,  along  with 
other  texts,  the  speech  of  Jehu,  the  seer,  to  Jehoshaphat : 
"  Shouldst  thou  help  the  ungodly,  and  love  them  that 
hate  the  Lord  ?"  And  also  from  Proverbs  :  "  He  that 
passeth  by,  and  meddleth  with  strife  belonging  not  to 
him,  is  like  one  that  taketh  a  dog  by  the  ears."  It  was 
answered,  however,  that  Joshua  aided  the  Gibeonites 
against  the  rest  of  the  Canaanites,  and  that  Jehoshaphat 
assisted  the  ungodly  Jehoram  against  the  Moabites,  with- 
out any  reproach  from  the  prophet  Elisha,  who  was  him- 
self present  in  the  expedition.  Nor  were  more  worldly 
reasons  wanting.  Winthrop  thought  it  would  be  good 
policy  to  uphold  La  Tour  against  D'Aulney,  and  so  to 
prevent  the  whole  eastern  coast  from  falling  under  the 
sole  control  of  a  zealous  Catholic  and  active  fur  trader, 
who  rigidly  excluded  New  England  ships  from  any  trade 
to  the  eastward,  which  La  Tour  promised  to  allow. 
This  view  of  the  case  found  favor,  also,  with  the  Boston 
merchants.  These  arguments  prevailed ;  La  Tour  was 

Aug.  allowed  to  hire  at  Boston  four  ships  and  a  pinnace,  with 
eighty  men ;  and,  thus  re-enforced,  he  raised  the  block- 
ade of  St.  John's,  and  pursued  D'Aulney  to  Port  Royal, 
where  the-  Boston  men  landed  and  committed  some  dep- 
redations. Against  all  these  proceedings  D'Aulney  earn- 
estly protested. 

Winthrop's  conduct  in  this  affair  had  not  given  entire 

satisfaction  ;  several  of  the  ministers  and  magistrates  had 

1644.  remonstrated  against  it,  and,  at  the  next  election,  En- 

May<  dicott,  who  looked  with  very  suspicious  eyes  on  the  "  idol- 
atrous Frencn,"  was  chosen  governor,  Winthrop  being 
elected  deputy.  With  the  help  of  some  adventurers  from 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.     303 

New  England,  La  Tour  had  attacked  D'Aulney 's  estab-  CHAPTEB 

lishment  at  Penobscot ;   but  hearing  from  his  wife  in 

France  that  the  interest  of  his  rival  was  entirely  in  the  1644. 
ascendant  there,  he  came  again  to  Boston  to  beg  for  aid.  July. 
The  magistrates  and  elders  again  discussed  at  length 
whether  it  were  lawful  "for  a  true  Christian  to  aid  an 
anti-Christian,"  and  whether,  in  this  particular  case,  "  it 
were  safe  in  point  of  prudence."  These  deliberations 
resulted  in  a  letter  to  D'Aulney,  in  reply  to  his  reclama- 
tions, demanding  redress  for  the  seizure  of  Penobscot,  and 
some  other  old  matters ;  denying,  upon  what  ground 
hardly  appears,  that  the  armament  which  La  Tour  had 
obtained  at  Boston  had  been  fitted  out  "  by  any  counsel 
or  act  of  permission"  on  the  part  of  the  colony;  but  prof- 
fering, however,  redress  if  D'Aulney  could  show  himself 
to  have  been  injured.  La  Tour's  request  for  aid  was  not 
granted,  but  he  was  entertained  with  much  attention, 
and  at  his  departure  was  escorted  to  his  vessel  by  the 
Boston  train-bands.  He  was  hardly  gone  when  Madame 
La  Tour  arrived  in  an  English  vessel  which  she  had  Sept. 
chartered  to  take  her  to  St.  John's  ;  but  the  captain,  after 
great  delays,  trading  in  the  St.  Lawrence^had  brought 
her,  not  to  St.  John's,  but  to  Boston.  She  sued  him 
there  for  damages,  and,  by  the  help  of  her  husband's  Bos- 
ton creditors,  recovered  £2000,  part  of  which  was  levied 
on  the  ship's  cargo;  and  with  the  money  so  obtained,  Ma- 
dame La  Tour  hired  three  stranger  vessels  then  in  the  har- 
bor of  Boston,  and  sailed  with  them  for  St.  John's.  While 
this  aifair  was  still  pending,  a  messenger  from  D'Aulney 
arrived  at  Boston,  "  supposed  to  be  a  friar,  but  habited 
like  a  gentleman,"  with  whom,  after  many  mutual  recrim- 
inations, an  agreement  was  finally  made  for  trade  and  Oct. 
peace  ;  but  this  arrangement  was  necessarily  referred  for 
ratification  to  the  Commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies. 


304  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER       Those  commissioners,  at  their  third  meeting,  lately 
__held  at  Hartford,  taking  into  consideration  the  late  pro- 
1644.  ceedings  in  the  matter  of  La  Tour,  had  forbidden  the 
Sept.    fitting  out  of  any  volunteer  military  expeditions  from 
any  of  the  United  Colonies  without  their  express  con- 
sent.     They  had  recommended,  also,  to  the  colonies  the 
drawing  up  of  a  confession  of  faith  and  scheme  of  church 
discipline,  and  the  agreement  upon  some  common  method 
of  supporting  the  ministers.     They  had  also  ordered  a 
road  to  be  laid  out  from  Boston  to  Connecticut — thus 
exercising  the  important  power  of  internal  improvement. 
Advantage  had  been  taken  of  the   unpopularity  of 
Winthrop's  conduct  in  relation  to  La  Tour,  in  a  move- 
ment on  the  part  of  the  deputies  toward  the  appointment 
of  a  committee  of  their  body  to  share  with  the  magis- 
trates the  management  of  affairs  in  the  intervals  of  the 
General  Courts.     On  a  former  occasion,  the  magistrates 
had  very  strenuously  resisted  a  similar  movement;   and 
Oct.     now,  with  the  help  of  the  elders,  the  point  was  decided 
in  their  favor. 

In  the  same  vessel  that  brought  Madame  La  Tour 
to  Boston,  R^er  Williams  had  come  passenger.  Not 
long  after  his  arrival  in  England,  the  civil  war  being  in 
1643.  full  progress,  a  parliamentary  ordinance  had  appointed 
Nov.  3.  ^ne  ]£ari  Of  Warwick  "  governor  in  chief  and  lord  high 
admiral  of  all  those  islands  and  plantations  inhabited, 
planted,  and  belonging  to  any  of  his  majesty's  the  King 
of  England's  subjects,  within  the  bounds  and  upon  the 
coast  of  America,"  to  be  assisted  by  a  council  composed 
of  five  peers,  the  Earls  of  Pembroke  and  Manchester, 
Viscount  Say  and  Seal,  Lords  Wharton  and  Roberts, 
and  twelve  members  of  the  House  of  Commons — among 
whom  were  Sir  Henry  Vane,  late  governor  of  Massachu- 
setts, Samuel  Vassall,  one  of  the  original  patentees  of 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT. 

that  colony,  Hazelrig,  Pym,  and  Cromwell.     This  board,  CHAPTER 

a  pretty  close  imitation  of  the  late  royal  commission  of 

which  Laud  had  been  the  head,  was  authorized  "to  pro-  1644 
vide  for,  order,  and  dispose  all  things  which  they  shall 
from  time  to  time  find  most  fit  and  advantageous  to  the 
well  governing,  securing,  strengthening,  and  preserving 
of  the  said  plantations,  and  chiefly  to  the  preservation 
and  advancement  of  the  true  Protestant  religion  among 
the  said  planters,  inhabitants,  and  the  further  spreading 
and  advancement  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  among  those 
that  yet  remain  there  in  great  and  miserable  blindness 
and  ignorance."  They  were  also  authorized  to  appoint 
at  pleasure  all  such  "  subordinate  governors,  counselors, 
commanders,  and  officers  as  they  shall  judge  to  be  best 
affected  and  most  fit  and  serviceable  ;"  but  as  to  any 
particular  plantations,  they  might,  if  they  saw  fit,  de- 
pute to  the  inhabitants  any  or  all  of  the  above-granted 
powers. 

During  Williams's  stay  in  England  he  had  published 
his  "  Key  to  the  Language  of  America,"  containing,  like- 
wise, notices  of  Indian  manners ;  also,  the  "  Bloody  Tenet 
of  Persecution  for  the  Cause  of  Conscience,"  one  of  the 
first  English  publications  in  favor  of  religious  liberty,  in 
answer  to  a  letter  of  Cotton  on  the  power  of  the  magis- 
trate in  matters  of  religion.  Cotton  presently  replied  in 
the  "  Bloody  Tenet  washed  and  made  white  in  the  Blood 
of  the  Lamb."  From  the  commissioners  appointed  by 
the  Parliament  to  superintend  the  affairs  of  the  colonies, 
Williams  had  obtained  a  charter,  including  the  shores  and  March  14 
islands  of  Narraganset  Bay,  west  of  Plymouth  and  south 
of  Massachusetts,  as  far  as  the  Pequod  River  and  coun- 
try, to  be  known  as  PROVIDENCE  PLANTATIONS,  with  au- 
thority to  the  inhabitants  "  to  rule  themselves"  as  they 
shall  find  "  most  suitable."  He  also  brought  with  him 
I.  U 


306  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  a  letter  of  commendation  from  several  influential  mem- 

bers  of  Parliament,  sufficient  to  secure  him  safe-conduct 

1644.  through  Massachusetts.  He  proceeded  at  once  to  Prov- 
Sept.  idence,  and,  being  met  at  Seekonk  by  fourteen  canoes, 
and  escorted  home  in  triumph,  he  took  steps  toward  or- 
ganizing a  government  under  his  charter,  in  which, 
however,  he  encountered  many  difficulties.  Massachu- 
setts still  claimed  Shawomet ;  Plymouth  set  up  a  title  to 
Aquiday,  and  even  to  Providence,  as  within  the  limits 
of  Pocanoket — that  is,  of  Massasoit's  dominion ;  and 
Williams  was  peremptorily  forbidden  to  exercise  any  of 
his  "  pretended  authority"  in  either  of  those  places. 

The  civil  war  in  England  had  spread  to  the  seas,  and 
was  carried  by  English  ships  across  the  ocean.  The 
vessels  of  London,  seat  of  the  parliamentary  power,  fur- 
nished with  privateering  commissions,  took  every  oppor- 
tunity that  offered  to  attack  those  of  Bristol  and  other 
western  ports  which  adhered  to  the  king.  Such  an  en- 
July,  counter  had  lately  taken  place  in  Boston  harbor ;  and 
the  captors,  having  exhibited  a  commission  from  War- 
wick, high  admiral,  founded  on  a  parliamentary  ordi- 
nance, were  suffered  to  retain  their  prize.  But  when 
Sept.  another  London  vessel  shortly  after  attacked  a  ship  of 
Dartmouth  as  she  entered  Boston  harbor  with  a  cargo 
of  wine  and  salt,  the  magistrates  interfered  with  an 
armed  force,  and,  taking  advantage  of  some  defect  in 
the  commission  of  the  assailing  vessel,  appropriated  the 
prize  as  compensation  for  a  Boston  ship  which  had  been 
captured  on  the  high  seas  by  the  Royalists.  Some  "ma 
645.  lignant  spirits  beginning  to  stir  and  declare  themselves 
larch.  £or  j-ne  king,"  all  such  turbulent  practices,  either  by 
word  or  action,  were  strictly  prohibited.  But  a  law  was 
presently  passed,  assuring  protection  to  all  ships  that 
came  as  friends  j  and  officers  were  appointed  to  keep 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT. 

the  peace  in  the  harbor,  and  to  prevent  fighting  except  CHAPTER 
"  by  authority." 

The  Standing  Council  for  Life,  composed  of  Winthrop, 
Dudley,  and  Endicott,  still  enjoyed,  as  commissioners  for 
military  affairs,  the  right  of  confirming  the  choice  of  sub- 
altern officers  made  by  the  companies.  A  vacancy  oc- 
curring in  the  command  of  the  Hingham  company,  the 
council  wished  it  to  be  filled  by  the  lieutenant.  The 
lieutenant  was,  in  fact,  nominated  by  the  company ;  but, 
before  the  commission  had  actually  issued,  they  changed 
their  minds,  and  substituted  another  person.  The  coun- 
cil refused  to  receive  this  second  nomination,  and  direct- 
ed that  matters  should  remain  as  they  were  till  further 
order.  This  led  to  a  warm  dispute  as  to  the  temporary 
command  of  the  company,  in  which  Hobart,  the  minister 
of  the  town,  took  an  active  part  against  the  lieutenant, 
who  was  even  threatened  with  excommunication  from  the 
church,  under  pretense  that  he  had  made  false  statements 
as  to  what  the  council  had  directed.  Informed  of  these 
proceedings,  Winthrop  caused  some  of  the  most  active  in 
"  this  sedition"  to  be  arrested,  and  bound  over  to  the  next 
Court  of  Assistants.  Others  were  summoned  for  "  speak- 
ing untruths  of  the  magistrates,"  and  such  of  them  as 
refused  to  give  bail  were  committed. 

At  the  Court  of  Elections  shortly  after,  the  office  of 
governor  was  given  to  Dudley,  Winthrop  being  re-chosen 
deputy.  At  the  General  Court,  which  immediately  fol- 
lowed, a  petition  was  presented  from  the  Hingham  pris- 
oners and  their  friends,  complaining  of  their  arrest  as  an 
"  abuse  of  authority,"  and  requesting  to  be  heard.  This 
the  magistrates  opposed,  on  the  ground  that  the  parties 
complained  of  were  not  aamed  in  the  petition.  Winthrop 
was  thereupon  specified  as  the  culprit,  and,  after  some 
little  further  resistance,  a  hearing  was  had  in  the  meet- 


308  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  ing-house  at  Boston,  before  the  magistrates  and  deputies 
in  joint  session,  "  divers  of  the  elders  being  present,  and 
1 645.  a  great  assembly  of  people." 

Winthrop  placed  himself  below  the  bar,  and,  having 
heard  the  charges,  made  his  defense.  Half  the  deputies, 
with  Bellingham  and  Saltonstall,  who  formed  a  sort  of 
opposition  in  the  board  of  magistrates,  thought  that  too 
much  power  had  been  exercised,  and  that  the  people's 
liberties  were  in  danger.  The  rest  of  the  magistrates, 
with  the  other  half  of  the  deputies,  thought  authority  too 
much  slighted,  "  which,  if  not  remedied  in  time,  would 
endanger  the  commonwealth,  and  bring  on  a  mere  de- 
mocracy." 

After  a  tumultuous  hearing,  a  statement  of  facts  was- 
drawn  up,  not  without  much  difficulty,  by  a  joint  com- 
mittee, and  the  two  boards  then  separated,  to  deliberate 
apart.  The  deputies,  equally  divided,  and  unable,  aft- 
er much  debate,  to  come  to  any  conclusion,  sent  to  the 
magistrates  to  ask  their  opinion.  They  replied,  without 
hesitation,  that  the  petition  was  false  and  scandalous ; 
that  the  parties  committed  were  all  offenders ;  that  they 
and  the  petitioners  ought  to  be  censured,  and  "Winthrop 
acquitted  and  righted.  The  deputies,  thus  enlightened, 
after  much  debate  voted  the  petition  false  and  scandal- 
ous, but  they  would  not  agree  to  any  censure.  The 
magistrates  proposed  to  refer  the  matter  to  the  elders ; 
but  the  disposition  of  the  elders  to  side  with  the  magis- 
trates was  quite  too  notorious.  Wearied  at  last  by  the 
length  of  the  session,  the  deputies  proposed  an  arbitra- 
tion ;  the  magistrates  acceded,  and  named  six  elders  on 
their  part,  requiring  a  like  nomination  from  the  deputies. 
Finally  it  was  agreed  to  compromise  matters  by  declar- 
ing Winthrop  fully  acquitted,  and  requiring  the  petition- 
ers to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  session. 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT  399 

Sentence  having  been  pronounced,  Winthrop  took  his  CHAPTER 
seat  on  the  bench,  and  delivered  a  long  speech,  conclud-  ' 
ing  as  follows :  "  Concerning  liberty,  I  observe  a  great  1645. 
mistake  in  the  country  about  that.  There  is  a  twofold 
liberty,  natural  (I  mean  as  our  nature  is  now  corrupt) 
and  civil,  or  federal.  The  first  is  common  to  man  with 
beasts  and  other  creatures.  By  this,  man,  as  he  stands 
in  relation  to  man  simply,  hath  liberty  to  do  what  he 
lists  ;  it  is  a  liberty  to  evil  as  well  as  good.  This  liberty 
is  incompatible  and  inconsistent  with  authority,  and  can 
not  endure  the  least  restraint  of  the  most  just  authority. 
The  exercise  and  maintaining  of  this  liberty  makes  men 
to  grow  more  evil,  and,  in  time,  to  be  worse  than  brute 
beasts,  omnes  sumus  licentia  deteriores — we  all  become 
worse  by  license.  That  is  that  great  enemy  of  truth 
and  peace,  that  wild  beast,  which  all  the  laws  of  God 
are  bent  against,  to  restrain  and  subdue  it.  The  other 
kind  of  liberty  I  call  civil  or  federal ;  it  may  also  be 
called  moral  in  reference  to  the  covenant  between  God 
and  man  in  the  moral  law,  and  the  political  covenants 
and  constitutions  among  men  themselves.  This  liberty 
is  the  proper  end  and  object  of  authority,  and  can  not  sub- 
sist without  it,  and  it  is  a  liberty  to  that  only  which  is 
just,  good,  and  honest.  This  liberty  you  are  to  stand 
for  at  the  hazard  not  only  of  your  goods,  but  of  your 
lives,  if  need  be.  Whatsoever  crosseth  this  is  not  au- 
thority, but  a  distemper  thereof.  This  liberty  is  main- 
tained and  exercised  in  a  way  of  subjection  to  authority  ; 
it  is  of  the  same  kind  of  liberty  wherewith  Christ  hath 
made  us  free.  The  woman's  own  choice  makes  such  a 
man  her  husband ;  yet,  being  so  chosen,  he  is  her  lord, 
and  she  is  to  be  subject  to  him,  yet  in  a  way  of  liberty, 
not  of  bondage  ;  and  a  true  wife  accounts  her  subjection 
her  honor  and  her  freedom,  and  would  not  think  her  con- 


HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

dition  safe  ajid  free  but  in  her  subjection  to  her  hus- 
.^  band's  authority.      Such  is  the  liberty  of  the  church 

1 645.  under  the  authority  of  Christ,  her  king  and  her  husband. 
His  yoke  is  so  easy  and  sweet  to  her  as  a  bride's  orna- 
ments ;  and  if  through  frowardness  and  wantonness  she 
shake  it  off  at  any  time,  she  is  in  no  rest  in  her  spirit 
until  she  take  it  up  again  5  and  whether  her  lord  smiles 
upon  her,  and  embraceth  her  in  his  arms,  or  whether  he 
frowns,  or  rebukes,  or  smites  her,  she  apprehends  the 
sweetness  of  his  love  in  all,  and  is  refreshed,  supported, 
and  instructed  by  every  such  dispensation  of  his  author- 
ity over  her.  On  the  other  side,  ye  know  who  they  are 
that  complain  of  this  yoke,  and  say,  let  us  break  their 
bonds  ;  we  will  not  have  this  man  to  rule  over  us.  Even 
so,  brethren,  it  will  be  between  you  and  your  magistrates. 
If  you  stand  for  your  natural  corrupt  liberties,  and  will 
do  what  is  good  in  your  own  eyes,  you  will  not  endure 
the  least  weight  of  authority,  but  will  murmur  and  op- 
pose, and  be  always  striving  to  shake  off  that  yoke.  But 
if  you  will  be  satisfied  to  enjoy  such  civil  and  lawful 
liberties  as  Christ  allows  you,  then  will  you  quietly 
and  cheerfully  submit  unto  that  authority  which  is  set 
over  you,  in  all  the  administrations  of  it,  for  your  good. 
Wherein  if  we  fail  at  any  time,  we  hope  we  shall  be 
willing,  by  God's  assistance,  to  hearken  to  good  advice 
from  any  of  you,  or  in  any  other  way  of  God ;  so  shall 
your  liberties  be  preserved  in  upholding  the  honor  and 
power  of  authority  among  you." 

In  spite,  however,  of  Winthrop's  eloquence  and  influ- 
ence, there  were  still  to  be  found  in  the  colony  some  to 
whom  the  yoke  of  theopratic  authority  was  not  quite  so 

October,  easy  and  sweet.  At  the  nfext  session  of  the  General 
Court,  a  petition  was  presented  from  divers  merchants 
and  others,  asking  a  reconsideration  of  the  law  against 


ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.  3H 

Baptists,  and ,  a  repeal  of  the  act  which  prohibited  the  CHAPTER 

entertainment  of  strangers  without  license  from  a  mag- 

istrate.  In  England,  the  doctrine  of  religious  liberty  1645 
had  made  great  progress  ;  the  Independents  already  con- 
trolled the  Parliament,  and  the  petitioners  complained 
that  "  many  godly"  in  that  country  had  taken  great  of- 
fense at  these  laws.  A  portion  of  the  court  were  in- 
clined to  listen  to  this  petition  ;  but  the  elders  went  first 
to  the  deputies,  and  then  to  the  magistrates,  and  repre- 
senting what  advantage  it  would  give  the  Baptists,  whose 
notions  were  fast  spreading,  they  succeeded  in  obtaining 
a  peremptory  vote  that  the  laws  complained  of  should 
neither  be  altered  nor  explained.  The  Commissioners 
for  the  United  Colonies  added  their  support,  advising  at 
their  next  meeting  the  suppression  of  the  influx  of  error, 
"  under  a  deceitful  color  of  liberty  of  conscience." 

But,  though  any  thing  tending  to  liberty  of  conscience 
was  not  to  be  allowed,  a  concession  was  made  to  the  jeal- 
ousy of  the  freemen  ;  the  unpopular  Council  for  Life  was 
deprived  of  its  military  authority,  and,  thus  stripped  of 
the  last  vestige  of  power,  it  became  but  a  mere  name. 

Ever  since  the  death  of  Miantonimoh,  the  young  chief 
Pessacus,  his  brother  and  successor,  and  the  rest  of  the 
Narragansets,  had  been  in  a  state  of  great  uneasiness. 
They  had  repeatedly  sent  presents  to  the  colonists,  re- 
questing liberty  to  wage  war  against  Tineas,  whom  they 
accused  of  having  killed  Miantonimoh,  notwithstanding 
the  acceptance  of  a  ransom  for  him.  This  complaint  had 
been  specially  investigated  by  the  Commissioners  for  the 
United  Colonies,  and  pronounced  unfounded ;  for  how 
could  they  fail  to  uphold  their  ally  in  an  act  done  by  their 
command  and  for  their  special  benefit  ?  They  arranged  a 
temporary  truce,  which  having  expired,  the  Narragansets 
sent  war  parties  against  Uncas.  On  news  of  these  pro- 


312  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  ceedings,  a  special  meeting  was  forthwith  called  of  the 

Commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies,  and  prompt  meas- 

1645.  ures  were  taken* for  the  support  of  this  convenient  ally. 
July  28.  jn  the  curious  manifesto  issued  by  the  commissioners  on 
this  occasion,  they  acknowledge  their  "  lord  and  master" 
to  be  "king  of  peace  and  righteousness,"  requiring  them 
to  hold  forth  an  example  not  only  to  Europe,  but  to  the 
"  barbarous  tribes  of  the  wilderness.".  They  profess,  in- 
deed, "  an  awful  respect  to  divine  rules,"  and  an  endeav- 
or "  to  walk  uprightly  and  inoffensively,  and  in  the  midst 
of  many  injuries  and  insults  to  exercise  much  patience 
and  long  suffering ;"  but  they  argue  that,  under  existing 
circumstances,  "  God  Calls  the  colonies  to  war,"  and  they 
order  accordingly  an  immediate  levy  of  three  hundred 
men.  Sergeant-major  Gibbons  was  appointed  command- 
er-in-chief,  with  Standish  of  Plymouth,  Mason  of  Con- 
necticut, Seely  of  New  Haven,  and  Leverett  and  Ather- 
ton  of  Massachusetts,  as  his  council  of  war.  Endicott 
was  still  major  general  of  Massachusetts ;  Gibbons,  to 
whom  the  leadership  of  this  expedition  was  intrusted, 
was  commander  of  the  Suffolk  regiment.  Originally 
a  wild  companion  of  Morton  of  Merry  Mount,  he  had 
joined  the  Boston  Church,  and,  having  property,  had  estab- 
lished himself  in  that  town  as  a  merchant.  He  was,  so 
Captain  Edward  Johnson  tells  us,  "  a  man  of  resolute 
spirit,  bold  as  a  lion,  being  wholly  tutored  up  in  New 
England  discipline,  very  generous  and  forward  to  promote 
all  military  matters." 

Alarmed  at  the  preparations  against  him,  and  not 
placing  any  great  reliance  on  that  patience  and  long  suf- 
fering, or  that  awful  respect  for  divine  rules  of  which  the 
treatment  of  Miantonimoh  had  furnished  an  unpromis- 
ing specimen,  Pessacus  listened  to  Williams's  advice  and 
hastened  to  Boston  to  make  his  peace.  He  could  only 


ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.  313 

obtain  it  by  promising  to  indemnify  Uncas  for  the  depre-  CHAPTER 
dations  committed  upon  him ;    to  pay  the  colonists,  for  ____ ^___ 
the  cost  of  their  late  preparations,  wampum  equivalent  to  1645. 
$5000,  and  to  give  hostages  for  future  good  behavior — 
terms  which  he  felt  himself  obliged  to  concede. 

In  terror  or  admiration  of  a  power  so  vigorously  exer- 
cised, several  inferior  sagamores  followed  the  example  of 
the  chiefs  of  Shawomet  in  subscribing  to  the  ten  command- 
ments, and  acknowledging  themselves  the  subjects  of  Mas- 
sachusetts. Besides  the  petty  tribes  about  Massachu- 
setts Bay,  this  course  was  adopted  by  two  sachems  near 
"  the  great  hill  of  the  west,  called  Wachusett,"  and  even 
by  Passaconoway,  the  Merrimac  sachem.  It  was  among 
the  smaller  and  nearer  of  these  subject  tribes  that  the 
devoted  Eliot  now  first  began  his  missionary  labors. 

The  affairs  of  La  Tour  had  at  length  reached  a  crisis. 
Early  in  the  spring  he  had  again  visited  Boston  to  so- 
licit further  aid.  The  courage  and  energy  of  Madame 
La  Tour  repulsed  an  attack  which  D'Aulney  made  dur-  • 
ing  her  husband's  absence  on  the  fort  of  St.  John's ;  but 
a  Boston  ship,  sent  to  St.  John's  with  a  supply  of  pro- 
visions, fell  into  D'Aulney's  hands.  He  confiscated  the 
vessel,  and  sent  back  the  men  in  an  old  shallop,  with 
loud  complaints  of  breach  of  faith  and  threats  of  venge- 
ance, to  which  the  magistrates  replied  with  equal  spirit. 
A  second  attack  on  St.  John's  was  more  successful.  The 
fort  was  taken,  the  garrison  were  hanged  as  rebels,  and 
Madame  La  Tour  died  shortly  after  of  grief  and  vexa- 
tion. La  Tour  estimated  his  loss  at  £10,000,  $48,000, 
and  he  was  totally  ruined  by  it,  as  was  Major  Gibbons 
and  some  other  Boston  merchants,  to  whom  his  fort  was 
mortgaged.  Gibbons's  claim  against  La  Tour  amounted 
to  upward  of  £2000,  or  near  $10,000. 

So  far  from  granting  any  further  aid,  the  General 


314  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  Court  caused  a  paper  to  be  drawn  up,  and  presented  to 
'       the  Commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies,  strongly  rep- 

1 645.  robating  the  whole  connection  with  La  Tour,  who  pres- 
ently went  to  seek  aid  of  Sir  David  Kirk,  governor  of 
Newfoundland.    He  soon  returned,  however,  with  a  small 
vessel  lent  him  by  Kirk,  and  remained  during  the  winter 
a  pensioner  on  the  bounty  of  his  Boston  friends.      They 
fitted  him  out  in  the  spring  with  goods  for  trading  with 
the  Indians  at  the  eastward ;   but  he  betrayed  his  trust, 
forced  the  English  part  of  his  crew  on  shore  near  Cape 
Sable,  and  ran  away  with  the  vessel  and  cargo  ;  "  where- 
by it  appeared,  as  the  Scripture  saith,"  such  is  Win- 
throp's  remark  on  the  occasion,  "  that  there  is  no  confi- 
dence in  an  unfaithful  or  carnal  man."    The  Boston  sailors 
left  on  shore  by  La  Tour  wandered  about  in  great  distress, 
till  some  Indians  gave  them  a  shallop,  provisions,  and  a 
pilot.     La  Tour,  who  did  not  lack  capacity  and  enter- 
prise, presently  established  himself  as  a  fur  trader  in  the 
distant  region  of  Hudson's  Bay. 

1646.  Not  long  after  La  Tour's  final  departure  arrived  an- 
other visitor  no  less  remarkable.    This  was  Captain  Crom- 
well, who,  ten  years  before,  had  been  a  common  sailor  in 
New  England,  but  who  now  was  commander  of  three  fast- 
sailing  brigantines,  each  of  some  sixty  tons  burden,  and 
full  of  armed  men.     Under  a  sort  of  second-hand  com- 
mission from  the  Earl  of  Warwick  to  make  reprisals  on 
the  Spaniards,  he  had  captured  in  the  West  Indies  sev- 

.j  eral  richly-laden  Spanish  vessels.     He  was  doubtless  a 

•\  freebooter,  among  the  earliest  of  those  so  famous  pres- 

.  ;  ently  as  buccaneers.     A  storm  drove  him  into  Plymouth, 

/  "divine  Providence,"  according  to  Winthrop,  "  so  direct- 

ing for  the  comfort  and  help  of  that  town,  which  was  now 
almost  deserted."  These  providential  visitors  spent  free- 
ly and  gave  liberally  to  many  of  the  poorer  sort ;  yet, 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.  3^5 

even  in  the  case  of  these  formidable  and  liberal  strangers,  CHAPTER 

the  Plymouth  magistrates  did  not  fail  to  vindicate  their . 

authority.  One  of  Cromwell's  men,  inclined  to  be  mu-  1646. 
tinous,  in  a  struggle  with  his  commander  received  a 
slight  wound,  which  presently  mortified  and  caused  his 
death.  A  jury  of  inquest  having  found  these  facts, 
Cromwell  consented  to  be  tried,  "so  it  might  be  by  a 
council  of  war."  Such  a  tribunal  being  organized,  com- 
posed of  some  of  the  magistrates  and  military  officers, 
Cromwell  came  before  it  and  exhibited  his  commission, 
on  sight  of  which,  probably  without  any  very  critical 
examination  of  its  tenor  and  authority,  he  was  at  once 
acquitted.  Shortly  afterward  he  came  to  Boston.  "  He 
and  all  his  men  had  much  money,  and  great  store  of  plate 
and  jewels  of  great  value,  yet  he  took  up  his  lodging  in 
a  poor  thatched  house ;  and  when  he  was  offered  the  best 
in  the  town,  his  answer  was,  that  in  his  mean  estate  that 
poor  man  entertained  him  when  others  would  not,  and 
therefore  he  would  not  leave  him  now,  when  he  might 
do  him  good."  Winthrop,  lately  re-elected  governor,  re-  May. 
ceived,  as  a  present  from  this  magnanimous  freebooter, 
an  elegant  sedan  chair,  captured  in  one  of  his  prizes,  said 
to  have  been  designed  as  a  gift  from  the  viceroy  of  Mex- 
ico to  his  sister. 

The  faithlessness  of  La  Tour  facilitated  the  negotia- 
tions with  D'Aulney,  which  the  Commissioners  for  the 
United  Colonies  had  taken  in  hand.  They  offered  to 
send  an  embassador  to  treat  at  Penobscot ;  but  D'Aulney 
satisfied  with  the  compliment,  preferred  to  send  agents 
to  Boston.  These  agents  having  arrived  in  a  pinnace  Sept. 
on  the  Lord's  day,  just  as  the  people  were  going  to  after- 
noon's service,  Sergeant-major  Gibbons  sent  two  of  his 
chief  officers  to  meet  them  at  the  water  side,  and  to  con- 
duct them  without  noise  to  their  lodgings.  The  public 


116  HIS10RY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

CHAPTER  worship  being  ended,   the  governor  sent  Gibbons  and 

others  with  a  guard  of  musketeers  to  attend  the  em- 

1646.  bassadors  to  his  house.  He  met  them  without  the  door, 
carried  them  in,  entertained  them  with  wine  and  sweet- 
meats, and  then  reconducted  them  to  their  lodgings. 
The  Commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies  were  called 
together,  and,  after  a  keen  negotiation  and  large  claims 
for  damages  on  both  sides,  it  was  finally  agreed  to  over- 
look the  past,'  and  be  friends  for  the  future.  "The 
Lord's  day  they  were  here,"  says  Winthrop,  "  the  gov- 
ernor acquainted  them  with  our  manner,  that  all  men 
either  come  to  our  public  meetings  or  keep  themselves 
quiet  in  their  houses  ;  and,  finding  the  place  where  they 
were  not  convenient  for  them  for  that  day,  invited  them 
to  his  own  house,  where  they  continued  private  until 
sunset,  and  made  use  of  such  Latin  and  French  books 
as  they  had,  with  the  liberty  of  a  private  walk  in  his 
garden,  and  so  gave  no  offense." 

Notwithstanding  this  treaty,  which  was  sealed  by 
presenting  to  D'Aulney  the  sedan  chair  which  Captain 
Cromwell  had  given  to  Winthrop,  this  popish  French 
neighbor  still  remained  an  object  of  much  suspicion  to 
New  England ;  nor  was  it  long  before  he  seized  and 
confiscated  several  Boston  vessels  for  trading  with  the 
Indians  within  the  French  limits. 

While  the  negotiation  with  D'Aulney's  messengers 
was  still  going  on,  a  very  unwelcome  visitor  made  his 
appearance  at  Boston  in  the  person  of  Randall  Holden, 
one  of  Gorton's  companions  in  his  recent  visit  to  En- 
gland. Holden  brought  letters  of  safe-conduct  from  the 
Parliamentary  Commissioners  for  Plantations ;  also  a  copy 
of  the  complaint  against  the  Massachusetts  magistrates 
which  Gorton  had  lodged  with  that  board,  and  an  order 
thereupon  that  Gorton's  people  should  be  allowed  quiet 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.    3^7 

possession  of  their  lands  at  Shawomet,  with  an  intima-  CHAPTER 

tion,  however,  that  this  decision  was  not  final,  and  that . 

an  answer  was  expected  to  Gorton's  allegations.  1646 

Notwithstanding  Holden's  letters  of  safe-conduct,  it 
was  only  after  a  long  consultation  with  the  elders  that 
the  unwilling  magistrates  would  allow  him  to  land.  The 
papers  which  he  brought  raised  a  most  important  ques- 
tion, that  of  the  relation  in  which  the  colony  stood  to 
the  mother  country — a  point  as  to  which  the  Massachu- 
setts theocracy  was  no  more  inclined  to  concede  to  the 
Parliamentary  Commissioners  than  formerly  to  the  royal 
commission  headed  by  Laud.  The  General  Court  hav- 
ing met  in  special  session,  the  elders  were  called  in  to  NOT 
advise.  It  was  agreed  that  allegiance  was  due  to  En- 
gland ;  also  a  tenth  part  of  all  gold  and  silver  ore ;  but  en- 
tire independence  in  the  management  of  local  affairs  was 
claimed  under  the  charter,  and  complete  freedom  from 
any  interference  by  appeals  or  other  interruptions.  It 
was  judged  wisest,  however,  not  to  put  forward  these 
pretensions  too  strongly,  but  to  intrust  the  matter  to  the 
good  discretion  of  Edward  Winslow,  of  Plymouth,  who 
had  been  several  times  to  England  on  business  of  that 
colony,  and  who,  as  being  well  known  to  several  influen- 
tial members  of  Parliament,  was  now  selected  to  go  out 
as  agent  for  Massachusetts.  He  was  "  to  discern  the 
mind  of  the  Parliament,"  and,  if  the  opportunity  seemed 
favorable,  was  to  avail  himself  of  it  to  procure  such 
countenance  of  the  colony's  proceedings  as  would  put  a 
stop  to  all  complaints  for  the  future.  But  Massachu- 
setts was  as  poor  as  she  was  proud  and  haughty ;  her 
treasury  at  this  important  crisis  was  entirely  empty 
both  of  money  and  beaver  ;  nor  was  it  without  difficulty 
that  £100  were  borrowed  for  Winslow's  outfit. 

This  matter  disposed  of,  the  court  took  up  a  petition 
,11 


318  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  presented  at  a  former  session,  signed  by  seven  citizens 
of  Boston,  among  others,  by  our  old  acquaintance  Mav- 
1646.  erick.  In  the  name  of  themselves  and  many  more,  the 
petitioners  prayed  for  the  rights  of  English  subjects,  with 
complaints  of  the  exclusion,  under  the  existing  system, 
of  all  but  church  members  from  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
privileges.  Though  sufficiently  moderate  in  its  tenor, 
this  petition  had  given  great  offense  "  to  many  godly, 
both  elders  and  others."  The  zealous  Johnson  denounces 
those  who  signed  it  as  "  of  a  very  linsiewolsie  disposition, 
some  for  Prelacy,  some  for  Presbytery,  and  some  for 
Plebsbytery."  Several  replies  to  it  were  now  presented 
to  the  court,  which,  by  order  of  that  body,  were  summed 
up  into  one ;  not,  indeed,  by  way  of  answer,  because 
the  petition  was  adjudged  a  contempt,  and  therefore  not 
worthy  of  an  answer,  but  as  a  declaration  of  the  court's 
opinion  touching  this  audacious  assault  upon  theocratic 
authority.  Child,  a  young  physician  recently  from 
London,  whose  name  stood  at  the  head  of  the  signers, 
being  summoned  before  the  General  Court,  alleged,  on 
behalf  of  himself  and  the  others,  that  it  was  no  crime  to 
petition.  He  was  told  in  reply  that  it  was  not  for  pe- 
titioning they  were  questioned,  but  for  the  "  miscar- 
riages" which  their  petition  contained,  specified  on  the 
spot  to  the  number  of  twelve,  of  which  the  principal 
were,  calling  the  existing  government  an  "  ill-compacted 
vessel,"  ascribing  the  misfortunes  of  the  colony  to  its 
bad  government,  intimating  that  many  persons  were  dis- 
contented, charging  the  government  with  tyranny,  and 
claiming  a  right  of  appeal  to  England.  To  these  speci- 
fications the  petitioners  returned  elaborate  answers  in 
writing,  to  which  the  court  rejoined  extempore,  to  the 
entire  satisfaction  of  an  assembled  multitude  of  church 
members,  whose  exclusive  right  to  political  authority 
the  petitioners  had  presumed  to  question. 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.     3^9 

Thus  beaten  in  argument,  Child  and  his  associates  CHAPTER 
were  fined  from  £10  to  £50,  $50  to  $250  each,  and 
were  exhorted  to  be  quiet,  to  study  to  mind  their  own  1646. 
business,  and  to  recollect  the  sin  of  Korah  in  resisting 
Moses  and  Aaron.  On  promise  of  the  remission  of  their 
fines  "  if  they  would  ingenuously  acknowledge  their  mis- 
carriage," some  of  the  petitioners,  of  whom  Maverick  was 
one,  submitted ;  the  others  appealed  to  Parliament,  and 
tendered  their  appeal  in  writing ;  but  the  court  refused 
to  accept,  or  even  to  hear  it  read.  The  majority  was  de- 
cisive in  favor  of  this  denial  of  appeal.  Three,  however, 
of  the  magistrates,  Bellingham,  Saltonstall,  and  Brad- 
street,  with  two  of  the  deputies,  desired  to  be  entered 
"  contradicentes  in  all  these  proceedings." 
,  A  similar  effort  in  behalf  of  religious  liberty  had 
been  made  in  Plymouth  colony  about  the  same  time  by 
Vassall  and  ethers.  One  of  the  magistrates  had  made 
a  proposal  for  general  toleration,  and  two  others  had  sup- 
ported him.  "  You  would  have  admired,"  wrote  Wins- 
low  to  Winthrop,  '*  to  see  how  sweet  this  carrion  relish- 
ed in  the  palate  of  most  of  the  deputies."  But  Govern- 
or Bradford,  sustained  by  a  majority  of  the  magistrates, 
refused  to  put  it  to  the  vote,  "as  being  that,  indeed, 
which  would  eat  out  the  power  of  godliness." 

While  Child  hastened  to  get  ready  to  go  to  England 
in  a  ship  about  to  sail,  he  and  his  friends  bestirred  them- 
selves to  get  up  a  petition  from  the  non-freemen,  setting 
forth  their  grievances,  and  praying  the  parliamentary 
commissioners  for  relief.  This  was  esteemed  by  the  ma- 
jority of  the  magistrates  a  new  and  still  more  serious  of- 
fense ;  and,  without  admitting  the  three  dissenting  assist- 
ants to  their  council,  lest  some  hint  of  their  intention 
might  go  abroad,  an  order  was  issued  to  arrest  Child  just 
as  he  was  about  to  embark,  and  to  search  his  trunk,  and 


320  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  also  the  study  of  Dand,  another  of  the  petitioners.     Noth- 

'       ing  was  found  in  Child's  trunk,  but  in  Dand's  study  were 

1646.  seized,  in  the  hands  of  Smith,  another  of  the  petitioners, 

copies  of  two  memorials  addressed  to  the  Parliamentary 

,  Commissioners  for  Plantations  ;   the  one  from  Child  and 

his  associates,  setting  forth  their  case,  the  other  from 
some  non-freemen,  "  pretending,"  as  Winthrop  tells  us, 
"  to  be  in  the  name  and  upon  the  sighs  and  tears  of  many 
thousands,"  praying  for  liberty  of  conscience  and  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  parliamentary  governor.  Only  twenty- 
five  persons  had  dared  to  set  their  names  to  this  petition, 
and  these  either  "  young  men  who  came  over  servants, 
and  never  had  any  show  of  religion  in  them,"  or  "  fish- 
ermen of  Marblehead,  profane  persons,"  or  "  men  of  no 
reason,"  like  a  barber  of  Boston,  who  apologized  for  sign- 
ing that  he  did  it  to  please  the  gentlemen  his  custom- 
ers. How  dangerous  a  thing  it  was  to  meddle  with  such 
a  petition  was  sufficiently  evinced  by  the  case  of  one  Joy, 
"  a  young  fellow,  a  carpenter,"  who  had  been  very  busy 
in  procuring  signers,  and  who  even  presumed  to  question 
the  constable  who  searched  Dand's  study  whether  his 
warrant  were  in  the  king's  name.  This  audacious 
young  carpenter  was  kept  in  irons  till  "  he  humbled  him- 
self, confessed  what  he  knew,  blamed  himself  for  med- 
dling in  matters  belonging  not  to  him,  and  blessed  God 
for  these  irons  upon  his  legs,  hoping  they  would  do  him 
good  while  he  lived.  So  he  was  let  out  upon  reasona- 
ble bail." 

The  offense  of  Dand  and  Smith,  in  whose  custody  the 
petitions  had  been  found,  was  still  more  serious.  It  was 
held,  indeed,  under  the  fundamental  laws,  to  be  "  in  na- 
ture capital,"  being  no  less  than  treason  against  the  Com- 
monwealth, and  bail  was  refused.  Child,  indignant  at 
his  arrest,  "  gave  big  words,"  but  was  soon  silenced  by 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.  321 

threats  of  irons  and  the  common  prison.      He  was  kept  CHAPTER 

in  custody  till  the  ship  was  gone,  and  was  then  bound 

over  for  his  appearance  at  court.  1647. 

At  the  next  Court  of  Elections  an  attempt  was  made  May. 
to  displace  Winthrop,  and  to  secure  the  choice  of  some 
new  magistrates.  But  as  the  right  of  voting  was  con- 
fined to  church  members,  comparatively  few  of  the  dis- 
contented possessed  that  franchise,  and  Winthrop  was 
re-elected  by  a  majority  of  two  or  three  hundred.  At 
the  General  Court  immediately  following,  Child  and  the 
others  were  very  heavily  fined.  Unable  to  pay  his  fine 
of  £200,  $960,  Band  was  kept  in  prison  more  than  a 
year,  and  was  only  discharged  at  last  upon  a  humble 
submission. 

In  spite  of  these  high-handed  proceedings,  the  obnox- 
ious petition  had  gone  forward  by  the  very  ship  that  car- 
ried the  agent  Winslow,  intrusted  to.  the  care  of  Vassall, 
of  Scituate,  with  whom  the  magistrates  of  Massachu- 
setts hesitated  to  meddle,  not  only  because  he  belonged 
to  Plymouth  colony,  but  for  the  more  powerful  reason 
that  his  brother  was  an  influential  member  of  Parlia- 
ment. Yet  he  did  not  wholly  escape  animadversion.  Just 
before  the  vessel  sailed,  Cotton,  in  his  sermon  at  the 
Thursday  lecture,  advised  the  passengers,  if  a  storm 
arose,  to  throw  Vassall's  trunk  overboard,  as  containing 
the  Jonah  that  would  certainly  sink  them.  A  storm 
did  arise,  and,  to  appease  the  superstitious  fears  of 
some  of  the  company,  a  package  was  thrown  overboard 
containing  copies  of  the  obnoxious  papers ;  but  Vassall 
took  care  to  preserve  the  originals.  This  occurrence  is 
alluded  to  in  the  title  of  a  pamphlet,  "  New  England's 
Jonas  cast  up  at  London,"  presently  published  by  Child's 
brother,  a  major  in  the  parliamentary  army,  containing 
a  copy  of  the  original  petition  to  the  Massachusetts  Gen- 
I.  X 


322  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  eral  Court,  and  an  account  of  the  proceedings  upon  it. 

Winslow,  the  Massachusetts   agent,  published,  in   an- 

1 647.  swer,  "  New  England's  Salamander  discovered,"  allud- 
ing to  Vassall,  a  man,  it  was  said,  "  never  at  rest  but 
when  in  the  fire  of  contention."  Yet  the  fire  of  New 
England  proved  too  hot  for  him.  His  leaning  toward 
episcopacy,  or,  at  least,  toward  toleration,  had  made  him 
obnoxious  even  in  Plymouth  colony ;  and,  though  his 
family  remained  there,  he  never  returned.  By  the  aid 
of  Vane,  who  acted  a  magnanimous  part  toward  his  old 
opponents,  and  the  friendly  assistance  of  others  of  "  the 
godly,"  Winslow — almost  the  only  colonial  agent  of  Mas- 
sachusetts ever  able  to  give  satisfaction  to  his  constitu- 
ents— succeeded  so  well  with  the  Parliamentary  Commis- 
sioners that  they  wrote  to  the  magistrates  of  Massachu- 
setts, disavowing  any  intention  to  interfere  with  their  ju- 
risdiction, or  to  encourage  appeals  from  their  "justice," 
but  requiring  for  the  Gortonists  peaceful  possession  of  their 
lands  till  the  claim  of  right  could  be  decided.  Similar 
letters  were  sent  to  Connecticut  and  Plymouth.  No  no- 
tice appears  to  have  been  taken  of  the  appeal  of  Child,  nor 
of  the  petition  of  the  non-freemen.  Child  himself  having 
got  into  a  dispute  on  the  London  Exchange  with  a  New 
England  man,  whom  he  struck  in  his  passion,  was  obliged 
to  apologize  before  all  the  merchants,  and  to  give  it  un- 
der his  hand  "  never  to  speak  evil  of  New  England  men," 
nor  to  occasion  any  further  trouble;  "  and  besides," 
adds  Winthrop,  "  God  had  so  blasted  his  estate  as  he 
was  quite  broken."  Such  was  the  result  of  the  first 
struggle  in  Massachusetts  for  equal  political  rights,  an 
enterprise  not  to  be  again  attempted  for  many  years,  nor 
finally  to  be  accomplished  without  royal  aid. 

Yet  liberty  was  not  without  one  abiding  spot  in  New 
England.     In  spite  of  the  opposition  of  Massachusetts 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.  323 

and  Plymouth,  Roger  Williams  and  his  associates  had  at  CHAPTER 

length  succeeded,  though  not  without  much  difficulty  and 

delay,  in  uniting  and  organizing  the  Narraganset  settle-  1647. 
ments  under  the  charter  which  he  had  obtained.  The 
new  government  consisted  of  a  president,  four  assistants, 
and  an  assembly;  one  assistant  and  six  assembly  men  for 
each  of  the  four  towns  j  for,  besides  Providence  and  the 
two  towns  of  Portsmouth  and  Newport,  on  the  Island  of 
Aquiday,  the  new  commonwealth  included  also  the  set- 
tlement of  Shawomet,  where  the  Gortonfets  had  partially 
re-established  themselves.  The  government  was  declared 
to  be  "  democratical ;"  all  laws  enacted  by  the  Assembly 
must  be  sent  to  the  towns,  and  approved  by  a  majority 
of  them.  Freedom  of  faith  and  worship  was  assured  to 
all — the  first  formal  and  legal  establishment  of  religious 
liberty  ever  promulgated,  whether  in  America  or  Europe. 
A  body  of  laws  was  enacted,  and  afterward  approved  by  May  to. 
the  towns — the  basis  of  the  existing  code  of  Rhode  Island. 
The  assistants  acted  as  the  supreme  court  of  law ;  for 
smaller  cases,  there  were  town  councils,  each  composed  of 
six  persons.  One  hundred  pounds  were  voted  to  Williams 
for  his  pains  in  obtaining  the  charter. 

Gorton  himself  presently  arrived  at  Boston  with  a  let-  1648. 
ter  of  safe-conduct  from  the  Earl  of  Warwick.  It  was 
only,  however,  by  a  bare  majority  that  the  magistrates 
allowed  him  a  week's  stay,  and  a  safe  passage  through 
their  territories  to  Shawomet,  which  he  now  named  War- 
wick, in  honor  of  his  protector.  During  Gorton's  resi- 
dence in  England  he  had  published  an  account  of  the 
proceedings  against  him,  entitled  «  Simplicity's  Defense 
against  Seven-headed  Policy,"  to  which  Winslow  replied 
in  "Hypocrisy  Unmasked."  There  were  even  strong 
hopes  that  Winslow  would  be  able  to  procure  the  recall 
of  Williams's  charter,  on  the  ground  that  the  territory 


324  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  belonged  either  to  Plymouth  or  Connecticut — hopes  en- 
..-:ftnn  raged  by  some  lack  of  harmony  in  the  newly-consti- 

1CF48.  tuted  province.  The  Baptists  at  Newport  and  the  adher- 
ents of  Coddington  did  not  agree.  Coddington  refused 
to  accept  the  office  of  governor,  to  which  he  was  chosen 

May  18.  at  the  second  general  election.  He  wrote  to  Winthrop, 
Sept.  complaining  of  Gorton,  and,  a  few  months  after,  applied 
on  behalf  of  the  "  major  part  of  the  island,"  as  he  alleged, 
for  the  reception  of  Aquiday  into  the  New  England  Un- 
ion. But  this  was  refused,  unless  they  would  submit  to 
the  jurisdiction  of  Plymouth.  It  was,  indeed,  upon  the 
ground  of  an  alleged  deputation  to  her  of  the  rights  of 
Plymouth  and  Connecticut  that  Massachusetts  justified 
her  late  proceedings  against  the  Gortonists. 

Winslow  was  more  honorably  employed  in  promoting 
in  England  the  formation  of  a  society  for  the  propaga- 
tion of  the  Gospel  among  the  Indians.  This  society 
presently  received  a  parliamentary  charter,  and,  in  spite 
of  much  opposition,  succeeded  in  collecting  a  considerable 
amount  of  funds.  With  all  the  energy  of  an  iron  con- 
stitution, and  the  zeal  of  a  heart  benevolent  and  devout, 
performing  all  the  time  his  regular  duties  as  minister  of 
Roxbury,  Eliot  had  continued  his  missionary  labors. 
Having  acquired  the  Indian  language,  he  gave  a  regular 
Indian  lecture  alternately  at  Nonantum  and  Neponset, 
the  one  in  the  western  limits  of  Watertown,  the  other 
on  the  southern  border  of  Dorchester.  u  He  would  per- 
suade one  of  the  other  elders  or  some  magistrate  to  begin 
the  exercise  with  a  prayer  in  English ;  then  he  preached 
in  Indian  about  an  hour,  catechizing  the  children,  who 
were  soon  brought  to  answer  some  short  questions, 
whereupon  he  gave  each  of  them  an  apple  or  a  cake. 
Then  he  demanded  of  some  of  the  chiefs  if  they  under- 
stood him,"  and  inquired  if  they  had  any  questions  to 


tfEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT. 

ask.     These  Indian  proselytes  soon  grew  very  inquisi-  CHAPTER 

tive  after  knowledge  "both  in  things  divine  and  also_ 

human,"  and  put  many  questions,  some  of  which  their  1648. 
teacher  was  not  a  little  puzzled  to  answer.  On  the 
whole,  however,  the  system  of  religion  which  he  pro- 
pounded seems  to  have  struck  the  Indians,  such  of  them, 
at  least,  as  took  an  interest  in  the  subject,  as  sufficiently 
reasonable.  Their  questions  being  answered,  Eliot  con- 
cluded with  a  prayer  in  the  Indian  language.  "  The 
Indians  were  usually  very  attentive,  and  kept  their  chil- 
dren so  quiet  as  caused  no  disturbance.  Some  of  them 
began  to  be  seriously  affected,  and  to  understand  the 
things  of  God,  and  they  were  generally  ready  to  reform 
whatsoever  they  were  told  to  be  against  the  word  of 
God,  as  their  sorcery,  which  they  call  pow-wowing,  their 
whoredoms,  idleness,  &o."  Such  is  Winthrop's  account 
of  these  early  missionary  labors. 

"Under  a  commission  from  Massachusetts,  John  Win- 
throp  the  younger,  a  man  of  very  active  spirit,  constantly 
engaged  in  new  enterprises,  had  commenced  a  settlement  1646. 
at  Pequod  harbor,  where  he  claimed  a  large  tract  on  the 
strength  of  an  alleged  verbal  gift  from  an  Indian  chief 
before  the  commencement  of  the  Pequod  war — a  title, 
however,  which  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Col- 
onies were  hardly  willing  to  recognize.  The  colony  of 
Connecticut  claimed  the  banks  of  Pequod  River,  not 
only  as  conquered  by  that  colony  from  the  Pequods, 
but  as  included  under  their  conveyance  from  Fenwick. 
The  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies,  before  whom 
the  question  was  carried,  assigned  the  settlement  at  Pe- 
quod to  Connecticut.  It  afterward  received  the  name  1658. 
of  New  London,  Pequod  River  being  called  the  Thames. 
But  the  claim  of  title  by  conquest  set  up  by  Massachu- 
setts was  not  entirely  disallowed.  The  territory  from 


326  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  Mystic  River  to  the  country  of  the  Narragansets, 
a  quite  considerable  part  of  the  present  State  of  Rhode 

1647.  Island,  was  assigned  as  her  share  of  the  spoil. 

It  had  been  part  of  the  consideration  to  Fenwick  thai 
for  ten  years  an  impost  should  be  levied,  for  his  benefit, 
of  twopence  per  bushel  on  corn,  and  a  penny  a  pound  on 
all  beaver  passing  Fort  Say  brook.  The  people  of  Spring- 
field presently  resisted  payment  of  this  impost,  denying 
the  right  of  Connecticut  to  levy  taxes  on  the  inhabit- 
ants of  another  colony.  But  on  appeal  to  the  Commis- 
sioners of  the  United  Colonies,  the  impost  was  sustained, 
on  the  ground  that  Connecticut  had  a  right  to  levy  it 
for  the  support  of  the  fort.  The  General  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts, taking  sides  with  Springfield,  drew  up  a  re- 
monstrance against  this  decision,  and  took  the  same  oc- 
casion, also,  to  intimate  their  dissatisfaction  with  some 
other  proceedings  of  the  commissioners — indeed,  with  the 
whole  terms  of  the  union,  which  imposed  upon  them  half 

1648.  the  burden,  while  it  gave  them  only  a  quarter  of  the 
power.     This  remonstrance,  which  was  duly  answered 
by  Connecticut,  not  producing  the  desired  effect,  Massa- 

1649.  chusetts  imposed  upon  all  goods  belonging  to  any  inhab- 
itants of  the  three   other   colonies  which  might  enter 
Boston  harbor,  a  tax  or  duty,  nominally  for  the  support 
of  the  forts,  but  really  as  a  retaliation  for  the  decision 

1650.  against  her.      The  commissioners,  at  their  next  meeting, 
strongly  protested  against  this  act,  and  a  state  of  ill  feeling 
began  to  spring  up,  which  came  near  producing,  a  year  or 
two  after,  the  dissolution  of  the  New  England  Union. 

The  Commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies,  at  one 
of  their  earliest  meetings,  had  recommended  the  drawing 
up  of  a  common  confession  of  faith,  and  a  common  scheme 
1646.  of  discipline  for  the  New  England  churches.    The  Massa- 
chusetts  General  Court   had   subsequently  proposed  a 


NEW  EN  GLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.     327 
synod  for  that  purpose,  but  the  assambly  of  that  body  CHAPTER 

X. 

had   been   delayed   by  several  obstacles.      The   Boston 

Church,  still  infected  with  some  tinges  of  Hutchinsonian-  1646. 
ism,  and  fearful  of  new  stretches  of  ecclesiastical  author- 
ity, in  spite  of  the  strenuous  efforts  of  Winthrop,  Cot- 
ton, and  Wilson,  refused  to  choose  delegates.  "  So  the 
elders  sat  down  much  grieved  in  spirit,  yet  told  the 
congregation  that  they  thought  it  their  duty  to  go  not- 
withstanding, not  as  sent  by  the  church,  but  as  specially 
called  by  the  order  of  the  court."  The  synod  being 
met,  Norton  of  Ipswich,  one  of  the  ablest  of  the  elders,  Sept. 
on  a  lecture  day  at  Boston,  labored  hard  to  induce  that 
church  to  appoint  delegates.  He  took  for  his  text  Moses 
and  Aaron  meeting  on  the  mount  and  kissing  each  other, 
as  typical  of  the  relations  between  church  and  state ; 
and  he  laid  down  the  nature  and  power  of  the  synod  as 
only  "  consultative,  decisive,  and  declarative,  not  coative" 
or  compulsory.  With  much  ado,  delegates  from  Boston 
were  at  last  chosen ;  but  as  none  had  arrived  from  the 
other  colonies,  the  session  was  adjourned.  This  synod 
reassembled  the  next  year,  but  was  dispersed  by  an  epi-  1647. 
demic  influenza,  the  first  instance  of  that  disorder  of  June' 
which  we  find  mention.  It  spread  far  and  wide,  affect- 
ing alike  the  Indians,  the  French,  the  English,  and  the 
Dutch,  and  proving  fatal  in  many  cases,  especially  those 
in  which  bleeding  and  depletion  were  employed.  The 
synod  finally  convened  at  Cambridge,  and  was  opened  1648. 
with  a  sermon,  containing  "  a  clear  discovery  and  refuta-  Au£ust 
tion  of  such  errors,  objections,  and  scruples  as  had  been 
raised  about  it  by  some  young  heads."  In  the  midst  of 
this  sermon  there  came  a  snake  into  the  seat  where 
many  of  the  elders  sat.  Divers  shifted  from  it,  but  Mr. 
Thompson  of  Braintree,  "  a  man  of  much  faith,"  trod 
upon  its  head,  and  so  held  it  with  foot  and  staff  till  it 


328  HISTORY  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  was  killed.  "  This  being  so  remarkable,"  says  Win- 
'  throp,  "  and  nothing  falling  out  but  by  divine  Providence, 
1648.  it  is  out  of  doubt  the  Lord  discovered  somewhat  of  his 
mind  in  it.  The  serpent  is  the  devil,  the  synod  the 
representative  of  the  churches  of  Christ  in  New  En- 
gland. The  devil  had  formerly  and  lately  attempted 
their  disturbance  and  dissolution,  but  their  faith  in  the 
seed  of  the  woman  overcame  him,  and  crushed  his  head." 
Introduced  with  this  favorable  omen,  the  synod  "  went 
on  comfortably,"  and  proceeded  to  frame  a  confession 
of  faith,  almost  identical,  except  as  to  the  matter  of 
church  government,  with  that  of  the  famous  Westmin- 
ster Assembly,  which  closed  its  sessions  about  this  time. 
That  assembly  declared  for  Presbyterianism,  claiming  for 
the  church  under  "  King  Jesus"  a  divine  authority  in- 
dependent of  the  state.  The  New  England  Platform 
recognized,  on  the  other  hand,  the  intimate  union  of 
state  and  church,  giving,  indeed,  a  full  and  formal  sanc- 
tion to  that  theocratic  system,  of  which  the  origin  and 
organization  have  been  already  pointed  out.  The  West- 
minster Assembly  would  probably  have  had  no  objection 
to  the  same  system,  could  they  have  limited  political 
power,  as  in  New  England,  to  church  members  only. 
By  neither  system  was  any  individual  freedom  of  opin- 
ion allowed.  The  churches  and  their  members  were 
alike  subjected  in  both  to  the  iron  will  of  a  majority,  as- 
suming to  itself  all  the  pretended  infallibility  of  a  pope 
or  a  General  Council,  the  only  difference  being  that 
Presbyterianism  established  a  regular  gradation  of  church 
courts,  in  which  the  clergy  predominated,  while  the  oc- 
casional councils  and  synods  of  the  Congregational  sys- 
tem, as  it  was  called,  gave  a  nominal  equality  to  the  lay 
church  members. 

Winthrop  did  but  just  live  to  see  thus  solemnly  sane- 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.  329 

tioned  that  theocratic  system,  the  establishment  of  which  CHAPTER 

he  had  so  much  at  heart.     He  died  poor,  in  his  tenth 

term  of  office  as  governor,  leaving  a  fourth  wife,  whom  1649. 
he  had  recently  married,  and  an  infant  son,  to  whom  the  March- 
General  Court  voted  unanimously  d£200,  near  $1000 — 
a  generous  gift,  considering  the  poverty  of  the  colonv. 
He  left,  also,  a  journal,  commencing  with  his  departure 
from  home — an  invaluable  document,  our  chief  authority 
thus  far  for  the  history  of  New  England. 

Endicott,  chosen  to  the  vacant  office  of  governor,  sig-  May. 
nalized  his  entrance  upon  it  by  joining  with  several  of 
the  magistrates  in  an  association  against  wearing  long 
hair.  Winthrop,  during  his  life,  had  displayed  not  less 
zeal  against  the  profane  custom  of  drinking  healths. 
Gibbons  was  chosen  major  general  in  Endicott's  place. 

Dudley,  now  very  old,  was  once  more  chosen  governor.  1650. 
He  died  two  years  after,  leaving,  by  a  second  wife,  a 
family  of  young  children,  one  of  whom  subsequently 
played  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  history  of  Massachu- 
setts. Hard  and  stern,  with  none  of  Winthrop's  plaus- 
ible suavity,  some  verses  found  in  his  pocket  after  his 
death  express,  however,  Winthrop's  opinions  and  princi- 
»les  no  less  than  his  own : 

"  Let  men  of  God,  in  courts  and  churches  watch 
O'er  such  as  do  a  toleration  hatch, 
Lest  that  ill  egg  bring  forth  a  cocatrice, 
To  poison  all  with  heresy  and  vice. 
If  men  be  left,  and  otherwise  combine, 
My  epitaph's—'  I  died  no  libertine  !'  " 

The  same  horror  of  toleration,  an  inherent  and  essen- 
tial characteristic  of  every  theocracy,  is  very  energetically 
displayed  in  the  enthusiastic  pages  of  Captain  Edward 
Johnson's  "  Wonder-working  Providence  of  Zion's  Savior 
in  Now  England,"  finished  about  this  time,  and  pres- 


330  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  ently  printed  in  London — the  first  published  history  of  the 
'  planting  of  Massachusetts.  Adorned  with  rhymed  apos- 
1650.  trophes  to  the  principal  personages  mentioned  in  it,  this 
history  is  composed  in  a  very  rhapsodical  style,  and  in  a 
tone  of  confident  and  self-complacent  laudation,  a  little  too 
much  imitated  by  some  subsequent  New  England  histo- 
rians. It  throws,  however,  a  good  deal  of  light  on  the 
material  as  well  as  the  spiritual  condition  of  the  colony. 
"The  Lord  had  been  pleased,"  the  captain  tells  us,  "  to 
turn  all  the  wigwams,  huts,  and  hovels  the  English  dwelt 
in  at  their  first  coming,  into  orderly,  fair,  and  well-built 
houses,  well  furnished,  many  of  them,  with  orchards  filled 
with  goodly  fruit  trees  and  garden  flowers."  There 
were  estimated  to  be,  in  gardens  and  orchards,  about  one 
thousand  acres,  and  fifteen  thousand  acres  in  tillage. 
The  cattle  were  reckoned  at  twelve  thousand,  and  the 
sheep  at  three  thousand.  Many  laboring  men,  who  had 
not  enough  to  bring  them  over,  were  now  "  worth  scores, 
and  some,  hundreds  of  pounds."  Many  had  feared  that 
Massachusetts  "  would  be  no  place  of  continued  habita- 
tion for  want  of  a  staple  commodity ;  but  in  a  very 
short  time  every  thing  in  the  country  proved  a  staple 
commodity,  wheat,  rye,  oats,  pease,  barley,  beef,  pork, 
fish,  butter,  cheese,  timber,  masts,  tar,  soap,  plank,  boards, 
frames  of  houses,  clapboards,  and  pipe-staves  ;  and  those 
who  were  formerly  forced  to  fetch  most  of  the  bread  they 
ate  and  the  beer  they  drank  a  thousand  leagues  by  sea,  are, 
through  the  blessing  of  the  Lord,  so  increased,  that  they 
have  not  only  fed  their  elder  sisters,  Virginia,  Barbadoes, 
and  the  Summer  Islands,  that  were  preferred  before  her 
for  fruitfulness,  but  also  the  grandmother  of  us  all,  even 
the  fertile  isle  of  Great  Britain,  besides  Portugal,  that 
hath  had  many  a  mouthful  of  bread  and  fish  from  us  in 
exchange  for  their  Madeira  liquors,  and  also  Spain." 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.  33^ 
"  Good  white  and  wheaten  bread  is  no  dainty,  but  ev-  CHAPTER 

X. 

ery  ordinary  man  hath  his  choice,  if  gay  clothing  and  a 

liquorish  tooth  after  sack,  sugar,  and  plums  lick  not  away  1650. 
his  bread  too  fast,  all  which  are  but  ordinary  among  those 
that  were  not  able  to  bring  their  own  persons  over  at 
their  first  coming.  There  are  not  many  towns  in  the 
country  but  the  poorest  person  in  them  hath  a  house  and 
land  of  his  own,  and  bread  of  his  own  growing,  if  not 
some  cattle.  Flesh  is  now  no  rare  food,  beef,  pork,  and 
mutton  being  frequent  in  many  houses,  so  that  this  poor 
wilderness  hath  not  only  equalized  England  in  food,  but 
goes  beyond  it  in  some  places  for  the  great  plenty  of  wine 
and  sugar  which  is  ordinarily  used,  and  apples,  pears, 
and  quince  tarts  instead  of  their  former  pumpkin  pies. 
Poultry  they  have  plenty."  The  use  of  wine,  freely  im- 
ported from  Madeira,  seems,  indeed,  to  have  gradually  su- 
perseded that  habit  of  beer-drinking  which  the  colonists 
had  brought  with  them  from  England.  Johnson  enumer- 
ates not  less  than  thirty-two  trades  carried  on  in  the  col- 
ony— among  the  most  successful,  those  of  coopers,  tan- 
ners, and  shoemakers ;  "  it  being  naturalized"  to  these 
two  latter  occupations  "  to  have  a  higher  reach  in  manag- 
ing their  manufactures  than  other  men  in  New  England." 
Already  shoes  were  manufactured  for  exportation. 

"Many  a  fair  ship  had  her  framing  and  finishing 
here,  besides  lesser  vessels,  barques  and  ketches  ;  many  a 
master,  besides  common  seamen,  had  their  first  learning 
in  this  colony.  Our  maritime  towns,  Ipswich,  Salem, 
and  Boston,  begin  to  increase  roundly,  especially  Boston  ; 
the  which,  of  a  poor  country  village,  in  twice  seven  years 
is  become  like  unto  a  small  city."  "  The  form  of  this  town 
is  like  a  heart,  naturally  situated  for  fortifications,  hav- 
ing two  hills  on  the  frontice  part  next  the  sea,  the  one 
well  fortified  on  the  superficies  with  store  of  great  artil- 


332  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  lery,  the  other  having  on  its  descent  a  very  strong  bat- 
tery?  built  of  whole  timber  and  filled  with  earth;  betwixt 
1650.  which  two  strong  arms  lies  a  large  cove  or  bay,  on  which 
the  chiefest  part  of  the  town  is  built,  overtopped  with  a 
third  hill,  furnished  with  a  beacon  and  loud  babbling 
guns,  to  give  notice,  by  their  redoubled  echo,  to  all  their 
sister  towns.  The  chief  edifice  of  this  city-like  town  is 
crowded  on  the  sea  banks,  and  wharfed  out  with  great 
industry  and  cost ;  the  buildings,  beautiful  and  large, 
some  fairly  set  out  with  brick,  tile,  stone,  and  slate,  and 
orderly  placed,  with  comely  streets,  whose  continual  en- 
largement presageth  some  sumptuous  city." 

Besides  the  fort  and  battery  in  Boston,  and  another  in 
Charlestown  commanding  the  inner  harbor,  was  the  Gas- 
tie,  on  an  island  of  eight  acres,  three  miles  below  the 
town,  in  the  track  of  vessels  approaching  from  the  sea, 
very  advantageously  situated  "  to  make  many  shots  at 
such  ships  as  shall  offer  to  enter  the  harbor  without  their 
good  leave  and  liking."  As  there  was  no  lime  in  the 
colony  except  that  made  of  sea-shells,  this  fortress,  built 
at  first  of  earth,  had  fallen  to  ruins,  but  had  lately  been 
rebuilt  by  a  contribution  of  the  six  neighboring  towns, 
and  was  now  held  by  a  small  garrison  in  the  colony  pay. 
"  The  forts  are  well  contrived,"  says  Johnson,  "  and  bat- 
teries strong  and  in  good  repair,  the  great  artillery  well 
mounted  and  cleanly  kept,  half  cannon,  culverins,  and 
sackers,"  twenty-four,  eighteen,  and  six  pounders,  "  and 
also  field-pieces  of  brass,  very  ready  for  service." 

"  Good  store  of  shipping  is  here  yearly  built,  and  some 
very  fair  ones.  This  town  is  the  very  mart  of  the  land  ; 
French,  Portugals,  and  Dutch  come  hither  for  traffic." 
The  "  popularity"  of  the  town  had  become  so  great  that 
the  inhabitants  were  too  many  to  meet  in  one  assembly, 
and  the  northeast  part  being  separated  from  the  other 


NEW  ENGLANB  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.  333 

"  by  a  narrow  stream  cut  through  a  neck  of  land  by  in-  CHAPTER 

dustry,  whereby  that  part  is  become  an  island,"  it  was 

thought  meet  that  the  inhabitants  there  should  gather  1650. 
into  church  body  and  build  a  meeting-house,  which  was 
accordingly  done,  but  no  one  as  yet  was  called  to  office 
as  pastor.      This  second  church  in  Boston  was  the  thir- 
tieth in  the  colony. 

The  militia,  consisting  of  twenty-six  companies  of  foot, 
besides  a  "very  gallant  horse  troop,"  was  drilled  to  the 
use  of  arms  eight  days  in  the  year.  "  None  are  ex- 
empt," says  our  gallant  captain,  "  except  a  few  timor- 
ous persons,  that  are  apt  to  plead  infirmity  if  the  church 
choose  them  not  as  deacons,  or  they  can  not  get  to  serve 
some  magistrate  or  minister ;  but  assuredly  the  gener- 
ality of  this  people  are  very  forward  for  feats  of  war,  and 
many,  to  further  this  work,  have  spent  their  time  and 
estates."  Each  soldier  was  required  to  keep  constantly 
by  him  "  powder,  bullets,  and  match."  Besides  the 
town  magazines  of  powder  and  military  stores,  there  was 
also  a  general  magazine  for  the  colony,  all  under  the 
charge  of  an  inspector,  who  had  a  sharp  eye  to  keep  them 
well  supplied.  "  There  are  none  chosen  to  office  in  any 
of  these  bands,  but  such  as  are  freemen,  supposed  to  be 
men  endued  with  faith  in  Christ  Jesus ;"  whereupon 
our  captain  adds  this  weighty  caution  :  "  Let  all  people 
know  that  desire  the  downfall  of  New  England,  they  are 
not  to  war  against  a  people  only  exercised  in  feats  of 
arms,  but  men,  also,  who  are  experienced  in  the  deliver- 
ances of  the  Lord  from  the  mouth  of  the  lion  and  the 
paw  of  the  bear.  And  now  woe  be  to  you ;  when  the 
same  God  that  directed  the  stone  to  the  forehead  of  the 
Philistine  guides  every  bullet  that  is  shot  at  you,  it  mat- 
ters not  for  the  whole  rabble  of  anti-Christ  on  your  side, 
the  God  of  armies  is  for  us,  a  refuge  high ;  Selah  !" 


334  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  Quite  a  number  of  these  formidable  soldiers  offered 
their  services  to  the  "  godly  Parliament."  Besides  Cap- 

1650.  tain  Cook,  already  mentioned,  who  obtained  a  colonel's 
commission,  Stoughton,  the  commander  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts forces  in  the  Pequod  war,  became  lieutenant 
colonel,  and  Bourne,  a  Boston  ship-carpenter,  a  major 

1644.  in  Rainsborow's  regiment.  Leverett,  son  of  the  ruling 
elder  of  the  Boston  Church,  obtained  the  command  of  a 
company  of  foot.  Hudson,  his  ensign,  was  also  a  Mas- 
sachusetts man.  Liol,  another  of  these  adventurers,  be- 
came surgeon  to  the  Earl  of  Manchester's  life  guard. 
"  These  did  good  service,"  Winthrop  tells  us,  "  and  were 
well  approved ;  but  Mr.  Stoughton  falling  sick  and  dy- 
ing at  Lincoln,  the  rest  all  returned  to  their  wives  and 
families." 


VIRGINIA   DURING   THE  LONG   PARLIAMENT.          33.3 


CHAPTER    XL 

VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND  DURING  THE  ENGLISH  CIVIL 
WARS  AND  THE  COMMONWEALTH. 

JL  HE  meeting  of  the  Long  Parliament  was  a  subject  CHAPTER 

of  rejoicing  as  well  in  Virginia  as  in  Massachusetts 

Shortly  after  its  assembly,  in  an  address  to  their  con-  1641. 
stituents,  the  burgesses  refer  to  the  "  happy  Parliament 
in  England"  as  affording  opportunity  for  establishing 
their  "  liberties  and  privileges,"  and  for  "  preventing  the 
future  designs  of  monopolizers,  contractors,  and  pre- 
emptors,  ever  hitherto  incessant." 

The  old  Virginia  Company  applied  to  the  Long  Par- 
liament for  the  restoration  of  their  charter,  but  this  ap- 
plication found  no  favor  in  Virginia.  The  assembly  de- 
clared, "-that,  having  fully  debated  and  maturely  con-  1642. 
sidered  the  reasons  on  both  sides,  and  looking  back  to  April  L 
the  times  under  the  company,  and  also  upon  the  present 
state  of  the  colony  under  his  majesty's  government,  they 
find  the  late  company  in  their  government  intolerable, 
and  the  present  comparatively  happy."  This  protest 
wound  up  in  the  form  of  an  act,  with  a  clause  impos- 
ing a  severe  penalty  on  all  who  should  aid  or  abet  the 
reduction  of  the  colony  to  any  company  or  corpora- 
tion. It  was  sent  to  the  king,  who  returned  a  very  gra- 
cious answer,  dated  at  York,  whither  he  had  already  re-  July  18. 
tired,  to  raise  his  standard  against  the  rebellious  Parlia- 
ment. 

Shortly  after  the  breaking  out  of  the  civil  war  in  En-  1643. 
gland,  the  Virginia  code  underwent  a  second  revision. 


336  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  Most  of  the  former  laws  were  continued,  but  with  some 

XI 

modifications  and  additions,  derived  from  acts  passed  by 
1643.  the  intermediate  assemblies.  The  new  code  provided  for 
parish  vestries,  to  consist  of  the  minister,  two  church- 
wardens, and  the  "  most  sufficient  and  selected  men  of 
the  parish  ;"  the  vestrymen  to  be  chosen  annually  by  the 
major  part  of  the  parishioners.  They  are  empowered  to 
levy  assessments  for  church  repairs  and  parish  expenses, 
and  required  annually,  in  presence  of  the  commanders  of 
settlements  and  the  commissioners  of  the  monthly  courts, 
to  give  an  account  of  their  collections  and  disbursements. 
The  ministers,  to  be  recommended  by  the  vestries  and 
admitted  by  the  governor,  are  made  subject  to  suspension 
by  the  governor  and  council,  and  removal  by  the  assem- 
bly. All  ministers  are  to  use  the  Liturgy,  and  to  con- 
form to  the  Church  of  England;  the  governor  and  coun- 
cil to  compel  non-conformists  "  to  depart  the  colony  with 
all  conveniency."  No  popish  recusant  is  to  hold  any 
office ;  and  all  popish  priests  are  to  be  sent  out  of  the 
colony  within  five  days  after  their  arrival.  Traveling 
and  shooting  on  the  Sabbath  are  made  punishable  by 
fines. 

Besides  the  parish  and  ministerial  taxes,  there  was 
another  poll  tax  known  as  the  "  colony  levy,"  imposed 
annually  by  the  Assembly  for  the  payment  of  colonial 
expenses.  From  this  tax  the  vestries  are  empowered  to 
excuse,  on  certificates  of  poverty.  Conveyances  of  land 
are  required  to  be  registered ;  tenants  dispossessed  by  a 
superior  title  are  to  be  allowed  compensation  for  im- 
provements—  a  very  decided  advance  on  the  English 
law,  adopted  at  present  in  many  of  the  States.  Every 
planter  is  required  to  fence  in  his  crops  at  his  own  peril- 
thus  settling  a  question  which  had  made  a  political  revo- 
lution in  Massachusetts,  and  establishing  a  rule  which, 


VIRGINIA   DURING   THE    LONG   PARLIAMENT.    337 

by   statute   or   usage,    still   pervades   all  the   Southern  CHAPTER 

States.      The  killing  of  tame  hogs  is  made  felony  ;  nor 

could  wild  hogs  be  killed  without  a  license.  Hunting  1643. 
over  other  people's  cultivated  lands  is  forbidden.  Serv- 
ants without  indentures,  if  of  age,  are  to  serve  four 
years ;  if  under  twenty,  five  years ;  if  under  twelve, 
seven  years.  Servitude,  as  a  punishment,  is  abolished. 
To  deal  with  runaway  servants,  or  any  servants,  with  • 
out  consent  of  their  masters,  is  made  a  criminal  offense, 
Penalties  are  imposed  on  servants  marrying  without 
leave  of  their  masters,  running  away,  or  carrying  powder 
and  shot  to  the  Indians.  Any  freeman  who  sells  powder 
and  shot  to  the  Indians  is  to  forfeit  all  his  estate.  He 
who  trades  with  them  in  other  commodities  without 
license  is  to  be  imprisoned  at  the  discretion  of  the  gov- 
ernor and  council.  Arms  lent  to  Indians  may  be  taken 
away  by  any  person,  and  the  lender  is  subject  to  a  fine. 
The  monthly  courts  are  changed  into  county  courts, 
to  be  held  six  times  a  year  in  each  county,  by  commis- 
sioners appointed  by  the  Assembly  ;  each  commissioner 
being  also  authorized  to  sit  alone  to  decide  petty  contro- 
versies. From  the  county  courts,  which  possessed  a 
comprehensive  jurisdiction  in  all  cases,  both  in  law  and 
equity,  an  appeal  lay  to  the  quarter  courts,  composed  of 
the  governor  and  council,  and  thence  to  the  Assembly — 
a  judicial  system  closely  resembling  that  of  New  England. 
Juries  were  to  be  allowed,  where  parties  desired  it,  "if 
the  case  were  fit  for  a  jury."  The  fees  of  attorneys  in 
county  courts  are  limited  to  twenty  pounds  of  tobacco  in 
each  case,  and  twice  as  much  at  quarter  courts.  Two 
years  after,  the  Massachusetts  practice  was  adopted,  and 
all  "  mercenary  attorneys"  were  prohibited.  If  the  court 
perceived  that  either  party,  by  his  weakness,  was  like  to 
lose  his  cause,  they  were  themsehus  "  to  open  the  case," 
I.  Y 


338  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  or  to  appoint  "  some  fit  man  out  of  the  people"  to  do  it, 
________  to  whom  a  reasonable  compensation  was  to  be  allowed. 

1643.  The  extortionate  fees  of  physicians  had  become  a  subject 
of  complaint.  By  an  act,  omitted  in  this  revision,  but 
presently  revived,  they  might  be  compelled  to  state 
the  cost  of  their  medicines  under  oath.  All  suits  for 
debts  contracted  out  of  the  colony,  except  for  goods  im- 
ported, are  indefinitely  postponed.  Goods  taken  on  ex- 
ecution are  to  be  appraised  and  delivered  to  the  cred- 
itor. Prisons  are  to  be  provided  at  the  expense  of  the 
counties. 

It  had  formerly  been  enacted  that  all  accounts  and 
judgments  should  be  in  money  and  not  in  tobacco.  But 
the  deficiency  of  coin  had  caused  this  policy  to  be  changed, 
and,  by  the  present  code,  money  debts  were  not  recover- 
able. Some  six  years  afterward  a  scheme  was  enacted 
for  introducing  a  currency  of  copper,  upon  which  an  ar- 
tificial value  was  to  be  fixed,  the  coins  to  be  redeemed  by 
the  colony  at  their  nominal  value  if  ever  called  in.  But 
that  scheme,  which  much  resembles  the  paper  money  sys- 
tem afterward  introduced,  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
carried  into  effect.  The  trade  of  Virginia  was  a  good 
deal  in  the  hands  of  the  Dutch,  and  provision  is  made  for 
the  encouragement  of  Dutch  trading  vessels.  Attempts 
to  diversify  the  industry  of  the  colony  were  not  yet  aban- 
doned; premiums  are  offered  to  producers  of  potashes, 
soap,  salt,  flax,  hemp,  and  cotton. 

The  last  clause  of  the  code,  after  mentioning  the  with- 
drawal, "  through  the  unkind  differences  now  in  En- 
gland," of  the  former  royal  allowance  to  the  governor, 
assures  to  him  for  the  year,  by  way  of  salary,  two  shil- 
lings for  every  tithable  in  the  colony,  payable  in  Indian 
corn,  wheat,  malt,  beef,  pork,  butter,  cheese,  geese,  tur- 
keys, good  hens,  and  pigs,  at  prices  named  in  the  act, 


VIRGINIA  DURING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT. 
and  not  materially  different  from  those  now  current  in  CHAPTER 

XI 

the  New  York  market.  ' 

It  would  appear  that  each  county,  as  yet,  possessed  1643. 
the  right  of  sending  as  many  burgesses  to  the  Assembly 
as  it  chose.      Special  delegates  seem  also  to  have  been 
sent  by  some,  if  not  by  all  the  parishes.     But  a  year 
or  two  after  the  counties  were  limited  to  four  burgesses  1645. 
each,  their  expenses  to  be  paid  by  those  who  sent  them ; 
and  this  number  was  subsequently  reduced  to  two.     The 
burgesses  had  been  voted  for  hitherto  by  subscribing  a 
paper,  at  the  head  of  which  was  the  name  of  the  favored 
candidate.     But,  by  a  law  presently  enacted,  voters  were  1646. 
required  to  come  personally  to  the  place  named  by  the 
sheriff,  and  give  in  their  votes  viva  voce — an  imitation 
of  the  English  parliamentary  elections  still  kept  up  in 
Virginia. 

The  Parliamentary  Commissioners  for  Plantations,  to  1644. 
induce  the  Virginians  to  acknowledge  their   authority,     Jan- 
offered  them  the  choice  of  their  own  governor,  and  the 
same  freedom  from  imposts  granted  to  New  England. 
But  Governor  Berkeley,  a  stanch  Royalist,  persuaded  a 
majority  of  the  counselors  to  take  an  oath  to  adhere  to 
the  king.     Yet  the  Londoners,  though  chief  supporters 
of  the  Parliament,  were  assured,  by  a  special  act  of  As- 
sembly, that  it  was  not  intended  to  break  off  trade  with 
them. 

The  Virginians  generally  were  loyal  Episcopalians ; 
yet  there  were  some  Puritans  among  them.  Philip  Ben- 
net  had  visited  Boston  a  year  or  two  before,  with  letters  1642. 
from  many  « well-disposed  people  of  the  upper  new 
farms,"  bewailing  their  destitute  condition,  and  earnestly 
entreating  a  supply  of  faithful  ministers,  "  whom,  upon 
experience  of  their  gifts  and  godliness,  they  might  call  to 
office."  These  letters  were  publicly  read  in  Boston  on 


HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  a  lecture  day.  The  elders  met,  and,  having  "  set  apart 
a.  day  to  seek  God  on  it,"  by  consent  of  the  General 
1642.  Court,  they  selected  three  ministers  to  proceed  to  Vir- 
Oct.  ginia.  Two  actually  went,  with  a  third  from  New  Ha- 
ven, carrying  letters  of  commendation  from  the  Massa- 
chusetts magistrates  addressed  to  Berkeley  and  his  coun- 
cil. They  found  "  very  loving  and  liberal  entertain- 
ment ;"  but  as  they  refused  to  use  the  Liturgy,  they  were 
soon  silenced.  They  preached  a  while  in  private  houses, 
"the  people's  hearts  being  much  influenced  with  desire 
after  the  ordinances ;"  but  Berkeley  soon  availed  himself 
of  the  law  above  quoted  to  send  them  out  of  the  colony. 
The  Virginians,  however,  did  not  go  unpunished  "for 
their  reviling  the  Gospel  and  those  faithful  ministers ;" 
at  least  such  was  the  opinion  of  "Winthrop,  who  seems 
to  have  rated  both  the  religion  and  the  morals  of  the 
southern  colony  at  a  rather  low  estimate.  After  a 
peace  of  five  or  six  years,  the  Indians,  provoked  by  con- 
tinued encroachments  on  their  lands,  and  instigated, 
it  is  said,  by  the  aged  chief  Opechancanough,  formed 
a  new  scheme  for  the  extermination  of  the  colonists. 
They  were  encouraged  by  signs  of  discord  among  the 
English,  having  seen  a  fight  in  James  River  between  a 
London  ship  for  the  Parliament  and  a  Bristol  ship  for 
the  king.  Five  hundred  persons  perished  in  the  first 
surprise,  which  took  place,  according  to  Winthrop,  the 
1644.  day  before  Good  Friday,  appointed  by  the  governor,  "  a 
April  9  courtier,  and  very  malignant  toward  the  way  of  our 
churches,"  to  be  observed  as  a  fast  for  the  good  success  of 
the  king.  For  defense,  the  planters  were  concentrated  in 
a  few  settlements ;  a  monthly  fast  was  ordained  by  the 
Assembly  ;  every  fifteen  tithables  were  obliged  to  furnish 
one  soldier  ;  forts  were  built  at  the  points  most  exposed  ; 
and  a  ship  was  sent  to  Boston  for  powder,  which,  how- 


MARYLAND    DURING   THE    LONG    PARLIAMENT.  34^ 
ever,  the  General  Court  declined  to  furnish.      This  ooca-  CHAPTER 

XI. 

sion  was  taken  by  "  divers  godly-disposed  persons"  of  Vir- 

ginia  to  remove  to  New  England.  Among  the  principal  1644. 
of  these  emigrants  was  Daniel  Gookin,  a  gentleman  of 
much  merit,  for  many  years  a  magistrate, 'superintendent 
of  the  subject  Indians  of  Massachusetts,  and  finally  major 
general.  In  Virginia  a  fierce  struggle  ensued  with  the 
Indians,  of  the  details  of  which  we  know  little  or  nothing. 
It  was  much  shorter,  however,  than  the  former  Indian 
war.  The  Indians  were  presently  driven  from  their  fast- 
nesses. Opechancanough,  decrepit  and  incapable  of  mov- 
ing without  assistance,  described  by  a  cotemporary  writer 
as  "  that  bloody  monster  upon  a  hundred  years  old,"  was 
taken  prisoner  and  carried  to  Jamestown,  where  he  w,as 
shot  in  the  back  by  a  vindictive  soldier  appointed  to 
guard  him.  The  Indian  towns  were  broken  up,  ancl 
their  "  clear  land  possessed  by  the  English  to  sow  wheat 
in."  Opechancanough's  successor  submitted ;  and  a  peace 
was  made  by  act  of  Assembly,  the  Indians  ceding  all  the  1646. 
lands  between  James  and  York  Rivers.  No  Indian  was 
to  come  south  of  York  River  under  pain  of  death.  The 
Powhatan  confederacy  was  dissolved.  The  Indians  of 
lower  Virginia  sunk  into  servile  dependence,  and  dwin- 
dled away,  or,  migrating  to  the  south  and  west,  were 
mingled  and  confounded  with  other  tribes.  To  meet  the 
expenses  of  this  war,  it  became  necessary  to  levy  taxes 
on  land  and  stock  ;  but,  after  the  peace,  the  old,  unequal 
system  of  taxation  by  the  poll  was  revived.  Forts  had 
been  erected  during  the  war  at  the  heads  of  rivers,  which 
certain  individuals,  in  consideration  of  grants  of  adjoin- 
ing lands,  undertook,  after  the  peace,  to  maintain  at  their 
own  expense. 

The  fourth  Assembly  of  Maryland  passed  laws  to  pro-  1640. 
hibit  the  exportation  of  corn,  and  enforcing  its  cultiva-     Oct- 


342  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  tion  :   also  an  act  "  touching  tobaceoes" — the  foundation 

XI 

'       of  the  Maryland  inspection  system.      The  fifth  Assembly 

1641.  made   it  "  felony  of  death" — commutable,  however,  at 
Au£-    the  governor's  pleasure,  into  servitude  for  a  term  not  ex- 
ceeding seven  years — "  for  any  apprentice-servant  to  de- 
part away  secretly  from  his  or  her  master,  with  intent 
to  convey  himself  out  of  the  province;"  and  the  same 
penalty  was  extended  to  "  any  other  person  that  should 
willfully  accompany  such  servant  on  such  unlawful  de- 
parture ;"  but  "  receiving  a  runaway  servant"  was  not 
to  "  include  felony  nor  misprision  of  felony."     This  harsh 

1642.  law  was   re-enacted   the   next  year,  more,  it  may  be 
March,   hope^  by  way  of  terror  than  with  any  intention  of  ex- 
acting the  extreme  penalty.     The  same  Assembly  de- 
nied the  right  of  the  governor  to  prorogue  or  adjourn 

.  tnem  without  their  own  consent.  They  voted,  how- 
ever, a  subsidy  of  fifteen  pounds  of  tobacco  for  every  in- 
habitant above  twelve  years  of  age,  as  a  partial  reim- 
bursement to  the  proprietary  of  his  expenses  in  planting 
the  colony.  The  principle  of  toleration  was  still  firmly 
maintained.  Certain  persons,  calling  themselves  "  Prot- 
estant Catholics,"  having  complained  that  their  books 
and  the  key  of  their  chapel  had  been  taken  away  by 
Thomas  Gerard,  lord  of  St.  Clement's  Manor,  an  influen- 
tial Catholic  planter,  he  was  required  to  restore  the  key 
and  books,  and  was  fined  five  hundred  pounds  of  tobacco 
"  to  ward  the  maintenance  of  the  first  minister  as  should 
arrive." 

July.  At  the  next  session,  a  few  months  after,  a  complete 
system  of  law  was  provided  for  the  province.  The  Assem- 
bly began  by  laying  down  rules  for  its  own  proceedings. 
Any  ten  members,  including  the  lieutenant  governor  and 
six  burgesses,  were  to  constitute  a  quorum,  "  unless 
sickness  do  hinder,"  in  which  case,  those  present  "  at 


MARYLAND    DURING    THE    LONG    PARLIAMENT.  3  43 
the   usual   or  appointed   time"   should   make   a   house.  CHAPTER 

XI. 

The  drum  was  to  beat  "  as  near  as  may  be  to  sun- 

rising,"  and  so  on  at  intervals  of  half  an  hour,  and  any  1642. 
member  not  answering  to  his  name  after  the  third  beat- 
ing— a  seasonable  commencement  of  legislative  labors 
hardly  to  be  paralleled  in  these  degenerate  times — was 
to  forfeit  one  hundred  pounds  of  tobacco,  unless  excused 
by  the  lieutenant  governor.  No  bill  was  to  be  read 
above  once  in  one  day.  None  were  to  speak  in  one  day 
above  once  to  one  bill,  except  by  leave  of  the  lieutenant 
governor,  under  penalty  of  twenty  pounds  of  tobacco. 
"  None  to  use  any  indecent,  taunting,  or  reviling  words, 
to  the  naming  or  personating  of  any  member  in  the 
house,  or  any  other  way  misbehave  himself  in  his  speech, 
upon  pain  of  such  censure  as  the  house  shall  think  fit." 
An  act  "for  thf  rule  of  judicature"  provided  that  "right 
and  just"  in  civil  cases  should  be  determined  according 
to  the  law  or  most  general  usage  of  the  province,  or,  in 
defect  of  such  law  or  usage,  then  according  to  equity 
and  good  conscience ;  the  judges  to  observe,  so  far  as 
they  may  be  informed  thereof,  and  shall  find  no  incon- 
venience therein,  the  law  of  England  in  like  cases.  All 
crimes  and  offenses  were  to  be  judged  according  to  the 
law  of  the  province,  or,  in  defect  of  such  law,  by  the 
judge's  discretion,  guided  by  the  English  law ;  "but  no 
person  to  be  adjudged  of  life,  member,  or  freehold  with- 
out law  certain  of  the  province." 

The  same  Assembly  adopted  a  criminal  code,  by  which 
treasons  against  the  king  or  the  proprietary  were  made 
capital  offenses.  Piracy,  robbery,  burglary,  arson,  the 
malicious  plucking  out  of  another's  tongue  or  eyes, 
and  larceny,  might  be  punished  with  death,  or  by  brand-^ 
ing,  loss  of  member,  or  forfeiture  of  goods,  or  banish- 
ment, or  imprisonment  for  life,  or  servitude  to  the  pro- 


344  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  prietary  for  seven  years  or  less,  except  the  culprit  "be  a 
'  gentleman,"  or  might  be  otherwise  "  corporeally  corrected 
1642.  or  put  to  shame,"  as  the  council  might  direct.  A  like 
discretionary  power  <was  given  for  the  punishment  of  a 
long  list  of  inferior  offenses.  Drunkenness  was  to  be 
punished  by  a  fine  of  a  hundred  pounds  of  tobacco,  to 
be  appropriated  toward  the  building  of  a  prison  ;  if  the 
culprit  could  not  pay,  he  was  to  be  set  in  the  stocks, 
fasting,  for  twenty-four  hours.  Swearing  was  punishable 
by  a  fine  of  five  pounds  of  tobacco.  A  good  deal  of  dis- 
content was  occasioned  by  another  act  of  this  session, 
prohibiting  any  person  to  leave  the  colony  without  first 
obtaining  a  pass  from  the  chief  judge  of  the  county, 
which  was  not  to  be  granted  unless  the  applicant  had 
set  up  a  note  of  his  intention  at  least  five  days  before, 
one  to  be  a  Sunday  or  holy  day.  A  neWfAssembly,  held 
Sept.  shortly  after,  had  a  warm  controversy  on  the  subject  of 
this  law  with  the  governor,  who  finally  conceded  the  right 
of  individuals  to  go  out  of  the  province  at  their  pleasure, 
"  unless  indebted  or  obnoxious  to  justice."  An  act  was 
accordingly  passed,  as  a  substitute  for  the  other,  subject- 
ing masters  of  vessels  taking  such  persons  away  to  an 
action  of  damages.  This  act  was  limited  to  three  years, 
in  conformity  to  a  judicious  custom,  thus  early  adopted 
in  Maryland,  and  long  persevered  in,  of  limiting  the  ex- 
istence of  the  larger  number  of  laws  to  a  term  of  years. 
If  found  useful,  they  were  re-enacted ;  otherwise  they 
were  suffered  quietly  to  expire. 

The  colony,  meanwhile,  was  a  good  deal  annoyed  by 
hostilities  on  the  part  of  the  Nanticokes,  on  the  eastern 
shore,  who  even  sent  war  parties  across  the  bay  to 
St.  Mary's.  Provision  was  made  for  collecting  the 
women  and  children,  on  occasion  of  such  incursions,  at 
St.  Inigoe's  Fort ;  and  another  fort  was  built  near  the 


MARYLAND   DURING   THE   LONG   PARLIAMENT.  3  45 

Patuxent  for  defense  against  the  Susquehannas.      Cal-  CHAPTER 
vert,  having  occasion  to  go  to  England — perhaps  to  can-          ' 
suit  the  proprietary  as  to  the  policy  to  be  adopted,  now  1643. 
that  civil  war  was  begun — left  the  administration  in  the    APril- 
hands  of  Giles  Bent,  commandant  of  the  Isle  of  Kent. 
During  Bent's  term  of  office  some  trouble  was  occasioned 
by  one  Captain  Ingle,  a  ship-master,  who  was  arrested 
for  high  treason,  but  escaped.      Shortly  after  Calvert's 
return  a  rebellion  broke  out,  headed  by  this  same  Ingle,  1644. 
in  consequence  of  which  Cal  vert  retired  to  Virginia.  SePt 

An  application,  made  a  year  or  two  previous  by  Clay- 
borne  for  reimbursement  for  his  confiscated  property,  hav- 
ing been  rejected  by  the  Assembly,  he  took  advantage 
of  the  present  disturbed  state  of  affairs  to  repossess  him- 
self by  force  of  the  Isle  of  Kent.  Ingle  claimed,  per- 
il aps,  to  act  under  some  parliamentary  authority  ;  but 
great  obscurity  involves  all  these  transactions,  as  well  as 
some  other  parts  of  the  early  history  of  Maryland;  for, 
upon  the  re-establishment  of  the  proprietary  government 
two  years  after,  Clay  borne  and  Ingle  destroyed  or  car- 
ried off  a  large  part  of  the  records.  Governor  Calvert  re- 
turned from  Virginia  with  a  body  of  armed  men,  and  his 
authority  was  presently  re-established,  though  not  with-  1646. 
out  bloodshed.  Hill,  who  had  been  appointed  governor 
by  the  council,  retired  on  condition  of  receiving  the  fees 
due  him  while  he  held  office.  An  Assembly  was  called 
by  Calvert,  and  martial  law  and  an  embargo  were  pro- 
claimed. For  want  of  other  funds,  but  much  to  Lord 
Baltimore's  dissatisfaction,  Calvert's  soldiers  were  paid 
by  transferring  to  them  a  stock  of  cattle  belonging  to  his  1647, 
lordship's  private  estate.  The  Isle  of  Kent  was  also  re-  January- 
duced  to  subjection.  Calvert  died  soon  after,  having  April, 
first,  however,  under  a  power  of  attorney  to  that  effect, 
nominated  as  successor  Thomas  Greene,  who  presently 


346  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES.    • 

CHAPTER  called  a  new  Assembly,  and  proclaimed  a  general  am- 
nesty. Some  claim,  however,  to  the  government,  was 
1648.  set  up  by  Hill,  who  complained  that  the  promised 
compensation  had  not  been  paid.  Having  retired  to 
Virginia,  Hill  had  interested  Governor  Berkeley  in  his 
behalf. 

During  the  progress  of  the  civil  war  in  England,  Lord 
Baltimore  seems  to  have  acted  a  quiet,  cautious,  and 
prudent  part.  The  Parliament  having  completely  tri- 
Aug.  umphed,  he  deemed  it  expedient  to  displace  Greene,  who 
was  a  Catholic,  and  to  appoint  as  governor  William 
Stone,  an  inhabitant  of  Virginia,  a  zealous  Protestant 
and  Parliamentarian.  The  motive  for  this  appointment, 
as  set  forth  in  Stone's  commission,  was  an  undertaking 
on  his  part  to  introduce  into  the  colony  five  hundred  set- 
tlers of  English  or  Irish  descent.  John  Price,  also  a 
Protestant,  was  commissioned  as  "  muster-master  gener- 
al," not  only  for  his  «  knowledge  and  great  abilities  in 
martial  affairs,"  but  for  "  his  great  fidelity  to  his  lordship 
on  occasion  of  the  late  rebellion."  A  Protestant  secre- 
tary was  likewise  appointed,  and  a  majority  of  the  coun- 
cil, in  which,  however,  Greene,  the  late  governor,  retain- 
ed his  seat,  appear  also  to  have  been  Protestants.  Yet 
the  interests  of  the  Catholic  settlers  were  not  overlooked. 
Stone's  instructions  required  him  to  take  an  oath  not  to 
molest  or  discountenance,  on  religioiis  grounds,  any  per- 
son in  the  province  professing  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ, 
and,  in  particular,  no  Roman  Catholic  ;  nor  to  make  any 
difference,  on  that  score,  in  appointments  to  office  or 
otherwise.  The  governor  was  also  specially  restricted 
from  consenting  to  the  repeal  of  any  laws  made  or  to  be 
made,  relating  to  matters  of  religion,  judicature,  or  the 
prerogatives  of  the  proprietary,  without  special  warrant 
for  that  purpose.  New  conditions  of  plantation  required, 


MARYLAND    DURING   THE    LONG   PARLIAMENT.  3  4  7 

as  preliminary  to  grants  of  land,  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  CHAPTER 

the  proprietary.  

Sixteen  acts,  engrossed  on  parchment,  were  also  for-  1649. 
warded  to  Maryland,  for  which  the  governor  was  to  ob-    April, 
tain  the  assent  of  the  Assembly.     That  body,  which 
seems  to  have  been  now,  for  the. first  time,  divided  into 
an  upper  and  a  lower  house,  exhibited  a  disposition  to 
conform  to  the  wishes  of  the  proprietary  by  enacting  sev- 
eral laws,  derived  in  substance,  if  not  in  very  words, 
from  Lord  Baltimore's  drafts.     Among  these  was  "  an 
act  of  toleration,"  which  did,  indped,  but  carry  out  a 
policy  coeval  with  the  settlement  of  the  colony,  and  late- 
ly confirmed  by  the  oath   imposed  upon   the  governor. 
The  first  four  sections  of  this  celebrated  act  exhibit,  how- 
ever, but  little  of  a  tolerant  spirit.     Death,  with  forfeit- 
ure of  land  and  goods,  is  denounced  against  all  "  who 
shall  blaspheme  God,  that  is,  curse  him,  or  shall  deny 
our  Savior  Jesus  Christ  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  or  shall 
deny  the  Holy  Trinity,  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost, 
or  the  Godhead  of  any  of  the  said  three  persons  of  the 
Trinity,  or  the  unity  of  the  Godhead,  or  shall  use  or  ut- 
ter any  reproachful  speeches  against  the  Holy  Trinity." 
Strange  as  it  may  seem,  this  penalty  of  death  remained 
for  two  hundred  years,  still  darkening  the  statute-book 
of  Maryland !     Fine,  whipping,  and  banishment  for  the 
third  offense,  are  denounced  against  all  who  "  shall  utter 
any  reproachful  words  or  speeches  concerning  the  blessed 
Virgin  Mary,  or  the  holy  apostles  or  evangelists."     Fine, 
and,  in  defect  of  goods,  whipping,  and  a  public  apology, 
are  to  be  the  punishment  for  calling  any  person  within 
the  colony,  in  a  reproachful  manner,  "  heretic,  schismat- 
ic, idolater,  Puritan,  Presbyterian,  Independent,  popish 
priest,  Jesuit,  Jesuited  papist,  Lutheran,  Calvinist,  An- 
abaptist, Brownist,  Antinomian,  Barrowist,  Roundhead, 


348  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  Separatist,  or  other  name  or  term,  in  a  reproachful  man- 
'  ner,  relating  to  matters  of  religion."  Similar  penalties 
1649.  are  imposed  for  profaning  "  the  Sabbath  or  Lord's  day, 
called  Sunday,"  by  "  any  uncivil  or  disorderly  recreation," 
or  by  work.  After  this  incongruous  preface,  the  fifth 
section  sets  out  "  that  the  enforcing  the  conscience  in 
matters  of  religion  hath  frequently  fallen  out  to  be  of 
dangerous  consequence  in  those  commonwealths  where 
it  hath  been  practiced,"  and  therefore  enacts  that,  "  for 
the  more  quiet  and  peaceable  government  of  the  province, 
and  the  better  to  preserve  mutual  love  and  unity,"  no 
person  professing  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ  shall  be  mo- 
lested or  discountenanced  on  account  of  his  religion,  nor 
interrupted  in  the  free  exercise  of  it ;  breaches  of  this 
section  to  be  punished  by  fine  and  imprisonment. 

Policy,  it  is  evident,  had  a  much  greater  share  in  the 
enactment  of  this  act  than  any  enlightened  view  of  the 
rights  of  opinion,  of  which,  indeed,  it  evinces  but  a  very 
limited  and  confused  idea.  Now  that  the  Puritans  were 
triumphant  in  England,  an  exclusively  Catholic  colony 
would  not  have  been  tolerated  for  a  moment.  The  sole 
chance  of  securing  to  the  Catholics  the  quiet  enjoyment 
of  their  faith  consisted  in  bestowing  a  like  liberty  on  the 
Protestants — a  policy,  indeed,  upon  which  Baltimore  had 
found  it  necessary  to  act  from  the  very  first  planting  of 
the  colony. 

Another  act  of  this  Assembly  recognized  in  the  propri- 
etary the  sole  right  of  acquiring  lands  from  the  Indians — 
a  principle  adopted  afterward  in  all  the  other  colonies, 
and  incorporated  into  the  existing  policy  of  the  United 
States.  Kidnapping  the  Indians  to  sell  them  as  slaves 
was  made  felony,  and  other  precautions  were  adopted 
against  Indian  hostility  similar  to  those  in  use  in  Vir- 
ginia. Provisions  were  made  for  communicating  alarms  ; 


VIRGINIA    DURING   THE   LONG    PARLIAMENT.    349 
every  family  was  to  be  provided  with  guns  and  ammu-  CHAPTER 

XL 

nit  ion  5  and  none  were  to  go  beyond  their  plantations,  not 

even  to  church,  unless  well  armed.  A  very  harsh,  but,  1649. 
as  it  proved,  ineffectual  act,  visited  with  death,  mutila- 
tion, branding,  whipping,  fine  and  banishment,  accord- 
ing to  the  aggravation  of  the  offense,  all  mutinous  and 
seditious  speeches,  practices,  or  attempts,  with  or  with- 
out force,  against  the  person  or  title  of  the  proprietary. 
Following  some  precedents  of  former  assemblies,  an  im- 
post was  levied  upon  all  tobacco  exported  in  Dutch  ves- 
sels, the  produce  of  it  being  appropriated  partly  to  pay 
the  expenses  of  the  late  insurrection,  and  partly  as  a 
subsidy  to  the  proprietary.  An  assessment  was  also  im- 
posed on  the  inhabitants  for  replacing  Lord  Baltimore's 
stock  of  cattle,  of  the  appropriation  of  which  to  the  pay 
of  Calvert's  soldiers  he  had  very  loudly  complained. 

This  Assembly  had  shown  a  great  disposition  to  grat- 
ify all  the  proprietary's  wishes  ;  but  in  a  letter  addressed 
to  him  at  the  close  of  the  session,  they  "  humbly  request 
his  lordship  to  send  no  more  such  bodies  of  laws,  which 
serve  to  little  other  end  than  to  fill  our  hearts  with  sus- 
picions, jealousies,  and  dislikes."  They  suggested  rath- 
er to  send  "  some  short  heads  of  what  is  desired,"  with 
assurance  of  "  a  most  forward  willingness"  on  their  part 
to  give  "  all  just  and  reasonable  satisfaction." 

"A  perfect  Description  of  Virginia,"  a  tract  published 
in  London  this  year,  serves  to  give  clear  ideas  of  the  con- 
dition of  that  colony.  The  following  statements  collect- 
ed from  it  may  be  advantageously  compared  with  the  ex- 
tracts from  the  "  Wonder-working  Providence"  at  the 
end  of  the  preceding  chapter.  The  country  is  described 
as  diversified  with  "  small  ascents  and  descents,  valleys, 
hills,  meadows,  and  some  level  upland,"  «  woody  tall  over" 
except  where  clearings  had  been  made,  the  great  labor 


350  HISTORY    OF    THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  being  to  fell  the  trees,  dig  up  the  roofs,  and  so  to  pre- 

pare  the  land  for  the  plow.      It  is  represented  to  possess 

1 649.  "  twenty-five  sorts  of  trees,  large,  good,  and  fit  for  ship- 
ping, housing,  and  other  use  ;"  "  twenty  kinds  of  beasts," 
deer  being  abundant,  and  most  of  the  other  sorts  fit  to 
eat ;  "  twenty-five  sundry  sorts  of  birds  and  fowls,  land 
and  water,  for  food  not  amiss;"  "thirty  sorts  of  fish, 
river  and  sea,  plentiful,  large,  and  very  excellent ;"  the 
climate  as  healthy  as  that  of  England ;  the  land  "  most 
fruitful  and  productive,  with  very  great  increase;"  "a  fat, 
rich  soil,  with  very  fine  springs,  small  rivulets,  and  whole- 
some waters,"  facilities  of  intercourse  being  also  furnish- 
ed by  the  great  rivers.  "  They  yearly  plant  and  sow 
many  hundred  acres  of  wheat,  as  good  and  fair  as  any  in 
the  world,  and  great  increase  ;"  they  have  plenty  of  bar- 
ley, "  which  makes  excellent  malt;"  "their  maize,  or  Vir- 
ginia corn,  it  yields  them  five  hundred  for  one — they  set  it 
as  we  do  garden  pease — it  makes  good  bread  and  fru- 
menty, and  malts  well ;"  they  have  "  roots  of  several 
kinds,  potatoes" — the  sweet  potato,  no  doubt — "  aspar- 
agus, carrots,  onions,  and  artichokes ;"  "  herbs  of  all  kinds, 
garden  and  physic  ;"  "  hops  fine  and  large  ;"  "  store  of 
Indian  pease,  better  than  ours,  beans,  lupines,  and  the 
like,"  besides  "  fifteen  kinds  of  fruit,  pleasant  and  good." 
"  With  Italy  they  will  compare  for  delicate  fruits."  Their 
tobacco,  "  much  vaunted  and  esteemed  in  all  parts,"  sold 
in  the  colony  for  only  threepence,  or  six  cents,  per  pound, 
and  the  colonists,  we  are  told,  were  turning  their  atten- 
tion to  indigo,  which  throve  so  well  that  great  hopes 
were  entertained  "to  gain  the  trade  of  it  from  the  Great 
Mogul,  and  to  supply  all  Christendom."  It  was  not,  how- 
ever, till  a  subsequent  period,  and  in  more  southern  colo- 
nies, that  this  hope  was  partially  realized ;  and  in  the  end, 
in  this  matter  of  indigo,  the  country  of  the  Great  Mogul 
has  proved  an  overmatch  for  us. 


VIRGINIA   DURING   THE   LONG   PARLIAMENT.  351 

The  live  stock  of  the  colony  is  reckoned  at  twenty  CHAPTER 
thousand  cattle,  two  hundred  horses,  "of  an  excellent  - 

race,"  fifty  asses,  three  thousand  sheep,  and  five  thou-  1649. 
sand  goats ;  "  swine,  tame  and  wild,  innumerable,  the 
flesh  pure  and  good,  bacon  none  better  ;"  "  poultry,  hens, 
turkeys,  geese,  and  ducks,  without  number ;"  beef,  five 
cents  a  pound;  pork,  six;  cattle,  "about  the  same  prices 
as  in  England ;"  "  butter  and  cheese,  made  in  the  colony, 
plenty  and  good."  The  inhabitants  are  reckoned  at  fif- 
teen thousand  English,  and  three  hundred  "  good  negro 
servants." 

There  were  "  six  public  brew-houses,  but  most  brew 
their  own  beer,  strong  and  good;"  four  wind-mills  and  five 
water-mills  to  grind  corn.  A  saw-mill,  for  boards,  was 
much  wanted ;  iron  ore  was  plenty,  but  there  was  nobody 
to  work  it.  "  There  come  yearly  to  trade  about  thirty 
ships — a  good  seminary  for  mariners."  "  Most  of  the 
masters  and  chief  mariners  have  also  their  plantations, 
and  houses,  and  servants,  &c.,  and  so  are  every  way  great 
gainers  by  freight  and  merchandise ;"  and  if  they  can  not 
fill  up  with  tobacco,  they  take  "  staves,  clapboards,  good 
walnut-tree  wood,  cedar  timber,  and  the  like."  There 
is  lime  in  abundance,  and  good  brick ;  the  houses  "high 
and  fair,"  some  of  brick  and  others  of  wood,  but  covered 
with  shingles,  the  brick-makers  not  being  skillful  enough 
to  make  tile.  There  are  twenty  churches,  the  livings  of 
the  ministers  being  w^orth  at  least  £100,  $480,  annually. 

No  correct  notion  had  yet  been  obtained  of  the  breadth 
of  the  continent.  The  country  beyond  the  first  ridge  of 
mountains  was  unexplored ;  "  but  all  men  conclude,  if  it 
be  not  narrow,  yet  there  will  be  found  the  like  rivers  is- 
suing into  a  south  or  west  sea  on  the  other  side  of  the 
hills,  as^here  is  on  this  side  toward  the  east,  with  a  course 
of  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles."  The  same  dreams 


352  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  of  an  overland  traffic  to  India  that  interest  the  sanguine 

. of  to-day,  prevailed  two  hundred  years  ago  among  the 

1649.  colonists  of  Virginia.  These  western  rivers,  it  was  ex- 
pected, would  be  soon  explored,  "  and  by  such  a  discov- 
ery the  planters  in  Virginia  shall  gain  the  rich  trade  of 
the  East  Indies,  and  so  cause  it  to  be  driven  through  the 
continent,  part  by  land,  part  by  water,  and  in  a  most 
gainful  way,  safe,  and  far  less  expensive  and  dangerous 
than  it  now  is." 

New  England,  four  days'  sail  distant,  has  trade  to  and 
fro,  and  takes  from  Virginia  many  cattle,  much  corn,  and 
other  things.  "  That  New  England  is  in  a  good  condi- 
tion of  livelihood ;  but  for  matter  of  any  great  hope  but 
fishing,  there  is  not  much."  Compared  to  Virginia, 
"  it's  as  Scotland  is  to  England,  so  much  difference,  and 
lies  upon  the  same  land  northward  as  Scotland  does  to 
England  ;  there  is  much  cold,  frost,  and  snow;  their  land 
so  barren,  except  a  herring  be  put  into  the  hole  you  set 
the  corn  in,  it  will  not  come  up ;  and  it  was  great  pity 
all  those  planters,  now  about  twenty  thousand,  did  not 
seat  themselves  at  first  at  the  south  of  Virginia,  in  a 
warm  and  rich  country,  where  their  industry  could  have 
produced  sugar,  indigo,  ginger,  cotton,  and  the  like  com- 
modities." So  it  seemed  at  that  time ;  but  how  much 
has  New  England,  cold  and  sterile,  with  its  sole  staples 
of  fish,  ice,  and  granite,  outrun,  even  in  the  career  of 
wealth,  all  the  boasted  regions  of  tobacco,  cotton,  and 
sugar ! 

Though  the  inhabitants  of  Virginia  are  represented  in 
the  pamphlet  above  quoted  as  "  living  all  in  pea.ce  and 
love,"  the  effects  of  the  parliamentary  triumph  in  England 
began  to  make  themselves  manifest ;  so  much  so,  that 
1648.  the  Assembly  had  deemed  it  necessary  to  voteva  body- 
October.  guart[  0£  ^en  men  for  Governor  Berkeley,  not  only  to  pro- 


VIRGINIA   DURING   THE   COMMONWEALTH.      35-3 

teot  him  from  "  treacherous  attempts  of  the  salvages,"  CHAPTER 

but  also  from  "  a  sense  of  the  many  disaffection s  to  tho 

government  from  a  schism atical  party."  The  governor's  1649. 
right  to  press  men  for  soldiers  was  expressly  confirmed. 
Notwithstanding  the  expulsion  of  the  New  England 
ministers,  a  Puritan  church  had  contrived  to  maintain  it- 
self in  Virginia.  But  the  vigilance  of  the  governor  was 
now  awakened,  and  the  members  of  that  church,  a  hun- 
dred and  eighteen  in  number,  with  a  Mr.  Harrison  for 
their  pastor,  and  a  Mr.  Durand  for  their  ruling  elder, 
were  obliged  to  leave  the  colony.  They  were  invited 
to  remove  to  Eleuthera,  one  of  the  Bahamas,  where  a 
new  attempt  at  settlement  was  in  progress  under  the 
direction  of  Sayle,  twenty  years  after  governor  of  Caro- 
lina. Harrison  sought  refuge  in  Boston,  whence  pres- 
ently he  went  to  England.  Unfortunately  for  Lord  Bal- 
timore and  his  Catholic  subjects,  Durand,  with  most  of 
the  church  members,  preferred  going  to  Maryland ;  and 
on  the  River  Severn,  not  far  from  the  present  site  of 

% 

Annapolis,  they  formed  a  settlement  which  they  called 
Providence. 

About  the  same  time  arrived  from  England  Robert 
Brooke,  with  his  wife,  eight  sons,  a  great  number  of  serv- 
ants, and  a  commission  from  Lord  Baltimore  appointing 
him  commander  of  a  county.  Charles  county  was  ac- 
cordingly established  on  his  behalf.  The  next  year  Stone 
visited  the  settlement  at  Providence,  and  organized  it  as 
Ann  Arundel  county,  so  named  from  Lady  Baltimore. 

During  a  temporary  absence  of  Stone  on  a  visit  to 
Virginia,  news  arrived  in  Maryland  of  the  execution  of 
Charles  I.,  and  of  the  proclamation  of  Charles  II.  as  king 
of  Scotland.  Greene,  who  acted  as  governor  in  Stone's 
absence,  caused  the  young  king  to  be  proclaimed.  Ho 
was  also  proclaimed  in  Virginia,  where  the  news  pro- 
I.  Z 


354  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  duced  quite  a  burst  of  loyalty  in  the  shape  of  an  act  of 
Assembly,  which  provided  that  any  person,  stranger  01 

1649.  inhabitant,  who  should,  by  reasoning  or  argument,  defend 
"  the  late  traitorous  proceedings  against  the  late  most  ex- 
cellent and  now  undoubtedly  sainted  king,"  should  be 
prosecuted  as  an  accessary  to  his  murder  after  the  fact ; 
that  any  person  convicted  of  attempting  to  blast  the  late 
king's  memory  and  honor,  by  "  irreverent  or  scandalous 
words,"  should  suffer  such  punishment  as  the  governor 
and  council  might  direct ;  while  to  insinuate  any  doubts 
as  to  Charles  II.'s  right  of  succession  was  to  be  dealt 
with  as  treason.      The  same  penalty  was  also  denounced 
against  spreading  rumors  tending  to  a  change  of  govern- 
ment, or  to  lessen  its  power  or  authority,  which  power 
was   declared  plenary  to   all  intents  and  purposes  —  a 
clause  aimed,  it  is  probable,  at  those  disaffected  persons 
who  argued  that  the  demise  of  the  crown  had  vacated 
Berkeley's  commission. 

Lord  Baltimore's  approval  of  Greene's  precipitate  loyal- 
ty is  more  than  doubtful.  The  young  king,  at  all  events, 
seems  to  have  regarded  the  proprietary  of  Maryland  as 
a  time-server,  if  not  as  an  enemy  ;  for  while  he  sent  out 

1650.  a  new  commission  to  Berkeley  as  Governor  of  Virginia, 
June,    disregarding  the  proprietary  rights  of  Baltimore,  he  ap- 
pointed as  governor  of  Maryland  Sir  William  Davenant, 
known  afterward  as  a  dramatist  and  stage  manager,  and 
for  his  claim  to  be  a  natural  son  of  Shakspeare.      Dav- 
enant, then  an  exile  in  France,  where  the  young  king 
himself  was  soon  obliged  to  seek  shelter,  collected  a  body 
of  refugee  Loyalists,  and  embarked  for  Maryland  ;  but 
at  no  great  distance  from  the  French  coast  he  fell  in  with 
the  parliamentary  fleet,  was  taken  prisoner,  and  carried 
to  England,  where  he  owed  his  liberation  to  the  friendly 
intercessions   of  Milton,   a  brother  poet,   who  had  just 


VIRGINIA    DURING    THE    COMMONWEALTH.     355 
earned  a  title  to  favor  and  influence  by  his  brilliant  de-  CHAPTER 

XI 

fense  of  the  people  of  England  against  the  execrations  „ 

heaped  upon  them  for  the  execution  of  Charles  I.  1650 

The  English  colonies  in  the  West  Indies,  as  well  as 
Virginia  and  Maryland,  adhered  to  Charles  II.  Pro- 
voked at  this  obstinacy,  the  victorious  Parliament  or- 
dained "that  in  Virginia,  and  in  diverse  other  places  in  Oct.  3. 
America,  there  are  colonies  which  were  planted  at  the 
cost,  and  settled  by  the  people  and  by  the  authority  of 
this  nation,  which  are  and  ought  to  be  subordinate  to 
and  dependent  upon  England;  that  they  ever  have  been 
and  ought  to  be  subject  to  such  laws  and  regulations  as 
are  or  shall  be  made  by  Parliament ;  that  diverse  acts  of 
rebellion  have  been  committed  by  many  persons  inhabit- 
ing Virginia,  whereby  they  have  most  traitorously  usurp- 
ed a  power  of  government,  and  set  up  themselves  in  op- 
position to  this  commonwealth."  The  Council  of  State 
was  therefore  authorized  "  to  send  ships  to  any  of  the 
plantations  aforesaid,  and  to  grant  commissions  to  such 
persons  as  they  shall  think  fit,  to  enforce  all  such  to  obe- 
dience as  stand  in  opposition  to  the  Parliament,  and  to 
grant  pardons  and  settle  governors  in  the  said  islands, 
plantations,  and  places,  to  preserve  them  in  peace  until 
the  Parliament  take  further  order."  All  trade  with  the 
rebellious  colonies  was  prohibited,  and  the  capture  of  all 
vessels  so  employed  was  authorized.  A  similar  prohibi- 
tion was  enacted  in  Massachusetts,  whence  a  profitable 
trade  to  Virginia  and  the  West  Indies  was  already  car- 
ried on ;  but  the  Massachusetts  General  Court  put  in  a 
special  protest  against  the  extension  to  them  of  the  Par- 
liamentary claim  of  unlimited  jurisdiction. 

Sir  George  Ayscue  was  presently  dispatched  by  the  1651 
Council  of  State  with  a  fleet  against  Barbadoes  ;  but  he    Mav 
encountered  there  an  unexpected  resistance.      That  isl- 


356  HISTORY    OF    THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  and  had  a  large  population,  and  Lord  Willoughby,  the 
"         governor,  was  able  to  array  against  the  parliamentary 

1651.  forces  an  army  of  not  less  than  five  thousand  men. 

Sept.  Meanwhile,  a  separate  expedition  was  fitted  out 
against  Virginia,  under  the  direction  of  five  commission- 
ers, among  them  Richard  Bennet,  one  of  the  Puritan  em- 
igrants to  Maryland,  and  William  Clayborne,  the  old  ene- 
my of  Maryland,  now  treasurer  of  Virginia.  The  three 
others,  Dennis,  Stagge,  and  Curtis,  were  military  offi- 
cers. Dennis  and  Stagge  suffered  shipwreck  on  their 
passage,  and  only  Curtis  acted.  The  ships  for  this  ex- 
pedition, furnished  by  English  merchants  in  the  Virginia 
trade,  had  on  board  a  regiment  of  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
men,  besides  a  hundred  and  fifty  Scotch  prisoners  taken 
in  the  battle  of  Worcester,  and  sent  to  Virginia.to  be  sold 
as  servants. 

These  forces  proceeded  by  way  of  the  West  Indies, 
where  they  joined  Ayscue,  and  assisted  him  to  land  at 
Barbadoes.  Thus  re-enforced,  he  took  the  principal  fort, 
and  the  Barbadians  capitulated  ;  not,  however,  without  a 
full  and  express  concession  in  the  articles  of  surrender 
of  their  sole  right  to  tax  themselves.  To  this  inconsid- 
erable island  the  honor  thus  belongs  of  having  first  vin- 
dicated in  arms  that  right  of  self-taxation,  the  denial  of 
which  afterward  occasioned  the  American  Revolution. 

After  some  delay  in  sailing  from  the  West  Indies,  the 

1652.  vessels  of  the  Virginia  expedition  at  length  reached  the 
March.  Chesapeake.     There  were  several  Dutch  ships  lying  in 

James  River,  liable,  under  the  late  parliamentary  ordi- 
nance, to  seizure  and  confiscation,  whose  crews  agreed  to 
assist  in  the  defense.  A  negotiation,  however,  ensued, 
and  terms  of  capitulation  were  soon  arranged.  Two  sets 
of  articles  were  signed,  one  with  the  Assembly,  the  other 
with  Berkeley  and  his  council,  who  were  to  be  allowed  a 


MARYLAND   DURING  THE   COMMONWEALTH.    357 

year  to  settle  up  their  affairs,  without  being  required  to  CHAPTER 

take  any  new  oaths,  being  guaranteed,  also,  the  right __ 

within  that  time  to  sell  their  property  and  to  go  where  1652. 
they  pleased.  The  other  set  of  articles  assured  the  col- 
ony against  any  claim  of  conquest,  or  any  charge  for  the 
expense  of  the  present  expedition.  It  conceded  govern- 
ment by  an  assembly  ;  indemnity  for  the  past ;  security 
of  land  grants ;  the  existing  privilege  of  fifty  acres  of 
land  to  every  new  comer ;  the  same  freedom  of  trade  as 
was  enjoyed  in  England ;  the  non-imposition,  as  in  Bar- 
badoes,  of  any  taxes  or  customs,  except  by  the  Assembly  ; 
the  use,  for  one  year,  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 
the  suppression  of  which  was  one  of  the  things  specially 
enjoined  on  the  commissioners ;  and  a  year's  liberty  of 
sale  and  removal  for  all  colonists  who  did  not  choose  to 
take  "  the  engagement,"  that  is,  to  subscribe  a  promise, 
now  exacted  throughout  the  British  dominions,  "  to  be 
true  and  faithful  to  the  Commonwealth  of  England  as 
it  is  now  established,  without  king  or  House  of  Lords." 
The  safety  of  the  Dutch  allies  was  also  provided  for. 

The  capitulation  being  signed,  Berkeley's  commission 
and  instructions  were  declared  void  ;   and,  a  new  assem- 
bly being  called,  Bennet  was  elected  governor,  and  Clay-  April  30 
borne  secretary.      Samuel  Mathews  was  sent  as  agent 
to  England. 

Maryland  was  not  mentioned  by  name  either  in  the 
parliamentary  ordinance  or  the  commission  for  subduing 
Virginia.  But  that  commission  authorized  the  reduction 
of  all  plantations  within  Chesapeake  Bay.  Clayborne, 
one  of  the  commissioners,  had  no  good  will  toward  Lord 
Baltimore.  Even  before  the  final  settlement  of  affairs  in 
Virginia,  Stone  and  his  council  had  been  called  upon  to  March, 
take  "  the  engagement,"  to  which  they  did  not  object ; 
but  when  required  to  enact  all  laws  and  to  issue  all  or- 


358  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  ders  in  the  name  of  the  "  keepers  of  the  liberty  of  En- 
gland,"  they  demurred  on  the  ground  that  the  king's 

1652.  name  had  never  been  so  used  in  the  province,  and  that 
it  was  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  new  government  claim- 
ed, to  the  detriment  of  Lord   Baltimore's   rights,   any 
greater  authority  than  had  hitherto  been   exercised  by 
the  king.      For  this  resistance  to  their  orders  the  corn- 
March  29.  missioners  deposed  Stone,  and  appointed  a  new  council, 

of  which  Brooke,  the  commander  of  Charles  county,  was 
made   president ;   but,  upon  Stone's  submission,  and  at 

June  28.  the  request  of  the  inhabitants,  he  was  presently  rein- 
stated as  governor. 

Already,  before  the  subjection  of  Virginia,  on  the 
point  of  a  rupture  with  the  Dutch,  and  jealous  of  the 
extensive  carrying  trade  which  that  republic  had  ac- 
quired during  the  civil  war,  as  well  as  of  the  shelter 
afforded  to  the  banished  Loyalists,  the  Parliament  had 

1651.  passed  an  ordinance  which  prohibited  the  transport  into 
ct' 9    England    of   any   merchandise    from    Asia,    Africa,    or 
America,  except  in  English -built  vessels,  owned  in  En- 
gland or  the  English  colonies,  and  navigated  by  an  En- 
glish   commander    and    crew.      The    same    policy    had 

1647.  prompted  a  previous  ordinance,   authorizing  shipments 

Jan.  23.  from  England  to  Virginia,  Bermuda,  and  Barbadoes, 
duty  free,  provided  the  said  plantations  would  allow  no 
shipment  of  their  produce  except  to  England.  These 
embryos  of  the  subsequent  navigation  laws  still,  how- 
ever, allowed  a  direct  trade  between  Europe  and  the 
English  colonies ;  and,  after  the  peace  with  the  Dutch, 
the  vessels  of  that  nation  seem  to  have  regained,  not- 
withstanding the  ordinance  above  recited,  a  considerable 
share  in  the  carrying  trade  even  between  Virginia  and 

1653.  England.      Another  parliamentary  ordinance,   adopting 
the  policy  of  the  royal  proclamations  formerly  issued  by 


MARYLAND  DURING   THE   COMMONWEALTH.    359 

James  and  Charles,  prohibited  the  cultivation  of  tobacco  CHAPTER 

in  England.  

In  consequence  of  instructions  which  Stone  had  re-  .1654. 
ceived  from  Lord  Baltimore,  he  presently  declined  to  Feb< 
conform  any  longer  to  the  conditions  imposed  upon  him 
by  the  parliamentary  commissioners,  and  proceeded  to 
act,  as  formerly,  in  the  name  of  the  proprietary  only. 
What  was  very  disagreeable  to  the  Puritan  settlers,  he 
demanded  that  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  proprietor,  the  im- 
position of  which  by  the  Assembly  has  been  heretofore 
mentioned.  He  took  care,  indeed,  to  proclaim  the  ac-  May  6. 
cession  of  Cromwell  as  Lord  Protector ;  but,  by  orders 
from  Lord  Baltimore,  he  dismissed  Brooke  from  the  Julys, 
council,  revoking,  also,  the  erection  of  Charles  county, 
lately  established  on  his  special  account.  At  the  same 
time,  he  appointed  both  sides  of  the  Patuxent  to  be  a 
new  county,  by  the  name  of  C divert.  These  proceed- 
ings brought  Bennet  and  Clayborne  again  to  Maryland, 
and,  by  the  aid  of  the  Puritans  of  Ann  Arundel  county, 
and  the  threat  of  a  force  from  Virginia,  they  compelled 
Stone  again  to  resign.  Having  commissioned  William 
Fuller  as  governor,  with  Durand,  the  Puritan  immigrant 
from  Virginia,  as  secretary,  they  appointed  a  new  coun- 
cil, and  ordered  a  new  Assembly  to  be  called.  Copying  July  22. 
the  provisions  of  the  instrument  of  government  under 
which  Cromwell  had  lately  assumed  authority  as  Lord 
Protector,  no  person  was  to  be  allowed  to  sit  in  this 
Assembly,  nor  to  vote  for  members  of  it,  who  had  been  in 
arms  against  the  Parliament,  or  who  professed  the  Catho- 
lic religion.  One  of  the  first  doings  of  this  Assembly 
was  to  modify  the  act  of  toleration,  so  as  to  exclude  Oct.  20. 
"  papists  and  prelatists"  from  its  benefit — thus  requiting 
the  indulgence  of  Lord  Baltimore  by  disfranchising 
the  original  settlers.  Acts  were  also  passed  nullifying 


360  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  proprietary,  and  denying  his 
'      claim  to  be  "  absolute  lord"  of  the  province,  notwith- 

1654.  standing  the  clauses  in  the  charter  in  which  he  was  so 
denominated. 

1655.  Early  the  next  year  Stone  received  letters  from  Lord 
January.  Baltimore,  giving  assurance  that  he  still  kept  his  patent, 

and  blaming  the  easy  surrender  to  Bennet  and  Clay- 
borne,  who  had,  as^he  alleged,  no  authority  for  their  in- 
terference. Stone  resided  at  St.  Mary's,  the  Catholic 
capital.  The  head-quarters  of  the  new  council  were  at 
Ann  Arundel,  the  name  of  which  had  been  again  changed 
to  Providence.  "  Mr.  Preston's  house  on  the  Patuxent," 
intermediate  between  the  two  settlements,  was  used  as 
a  state-house,  and  there  the  colony  records  were  kept. 
Encouraged  by  Baltimore's  letters,  Stone  called  the 
Catholic  settlers  to  arms ;  he  seized  the  records,  together 
with  a  quantity  of  arms  and  ammunition  deposited  at 
Mr.  Preston's  house ;  and,  having  embarked  some  two 
hundred  men  in  ten  or  twelve  small  vessels,  proceeded 
against  Providence.  After  some  parley  and  maneuvers, 
March  25.  a  battle  was  fought.  The  war  cry  of  Stone's  party  was 
«  Hey  for  St.  Mary's !"  The  Puritans,  though  some- 
what inferior  in  number,  advanced,  shouting,  "  In  the 
name  of  God,  fall  on !  God  is  our  strength."  Stone's 
party  was  completely  routed  at  the  first  charge ;  some 
fifty  were  killed  or  wounded,  and  the  rest  taken  prison- 
ers, with  a  loss  on  the  Puritan  side  of  only  two  or  three. 
"  God  did  appear  wonderful  in  the  field  and  in  the  hearts 
of  the  people ;  all  confessing  him  to  be  the  only  worker 
of  this  victory  and  deliverance;"  so  we  are  told  by 
Leonard  Strong,  one  of  the  Puritan  party,  in  his  pam- 
phlet of  "  Babylon's  Fall  in  Maryland,"  published  the 
same  year.  Stone  and  his  principal  officers  were  tried 
by  court  martial,  and  ten  were  condemned  to  death, 


MARYLAND   DURING  THE   COMMONWEALTH.    351 

Four  were  executed;   the  others,  including  Stone,  who  CHAPTER 

was  wounded,  were  saved  by  the  entreaties  of  the  women 

and  the  soldiers.      Their  authority  thus   re-established  1655. 
over  the  entire  province,  the  triumphant  party  proceeded 
to  sequester  the  estates  of  their  opponents.      These  lat- 
ter  particulars  we  learn   from  John  Langford,  one  of 
Stone's  party,  in  his  "  Refutation  of  Babylon's  Fall." 

Both  sides  hastened  to  appeal  to  the  all-powerful  Pro- 
tector. Among  Stone's  adherents  was  a  certain  Doctor 
or  Captain  Barber,  formerly  in  Cromwell's  employ,  but 
who  had  lately  been  sent  to  Maryland  with  a  commission 
of  some  sort  from  Lord  Baltimore.  He  went  to  England 
to  state  the  case  for  that  side ;  Bennet  also  went  on  be- 
half of  the  commissioners,  his  place  as  governor  of  Vir- 
ginia being  supplied  by  Edward  Diggs,  elected  by  the 
Assembly.  There  was  pending,  at  the  same  time,  a 
boundary  dispute  between  Virginia  and  Lord  Baltimore, 
as  to  part  of  the  territory  on  the  eastern  shore  ;  the  Vir- 
ginians seem  even  to  have  entertained  hopes  of  vacating 
altogether  the  charter  of  Maryland,  the  erection  of  which 
into  a  separate  province  they  seem  still  to  have  regarded 
as  an  encroachment  on  their  rights. 

Cromwell  referred  the  matter  to  two  commissioners, 
whose  report  was  submitted  to  the  "  Committee  of  Trade"  1656 
— first  rudiment  of  that  Board  of  Trade,  afterward  so 
conspicuous  in  colonial  affairs.  This  committee  made  a 
report  very  favorable  to  Lord  Baltimore ;  but  Cromwell 
was  too  much  occupied  with  other  matters,  perhaps  was 
disinclined  to  give  any  final  decision.  He  appears,  in- 
deed, to  have  contemplated  a  new  frame  of  government 
for  Virginia,  along  with  which,  perhaps,  Maryland  was 
to  be  included. 

Even  before  the  favorable  report  of  the  Committee  of 
Trade,  Lord  Baltimore's  partisans  were  recovering  their 


I 
•J62  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  courage.      Some  sort  of  commission  or  authority  seems 
'      to  have  been  deputed  by  Stone  to  Josiah  Fendal.     But 

1656.  Fendal  was  narrowly  watched,  arrested  on  suspicion  by 
Aug.  13.  the  puritan  authorities,  and  only  released  upon  taking 

an  oath  not  to  disturb  the  existing  government  till  some 
decision  was  arrived  at  in  England.  Encouraged  by  the 
aspect  of  affairs,  Lord  Baltimore  had  already  issued  a 
commission  as  governor  to  this  same  Fendal,  presently 
followed  by  a  copy  of  the  favorable  report  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Trade.  Philip  Calvert,  brother  of  the  proprie- 

1657.  tary,  came  out  also  as  secretary  for  the  province,  bring- 
ing instructions  to  reward  with  grants  of  lands  those  who 
had  been  most  active  on  Lord  Baltimore's  side  during 
the  late  struggle,  and  to  provide  for  the  widows  of  the 
slain  out  of  the  proprietary  rents.      Fendal  and  Calvert 
Were  acknowledged  at  St.  Mary's  and  the  neighborhood, 
but  the  Puritan  council  still  held  authority  at  Providence. 
Their  act  for  confiscating  the  property  of  their  opponents, 
as  usually  happens  in  such  cases,  seems  to  have  given 
occasion  to  frauds  and  peculations ;  for  the  Puritan  As- 
sembly, at  a  new  session,  appointed  a  committee  to  sit 
after  the  adjournment,  authorized  to  call  to  strict  ac- 
count all  who  had  received  money  under  that  act. 

Through  the  mediation  of  Diggs,  late  governor  of 
Virginia,  who  had  gone  to  England  as  joint  agent  with 
Nov.  30.  Bennet  and  Mathews,  an  agreement  was  presently  en- 
tered into  between  Lord  Baltimore  on  the  one  hand,  and 
Bennet  and  Mathews  on  the  other,  for  arranging  the  af- 
fairs of  Maryland.  Fendal,  who  had  also  gone  to  En- 
gland, leaving  Barber  as  deputy  governor  at  St.  Mary's, 

1658.  brought  out  this  agreement,  which  was  ratified,  with 
March  24.  some  modifications,  by  the  Puritan  council  at  Providence. 

There  was  to  be  oblivion  as  to  the  past.  Grants  of  land 
were  to  issue  to  all  entitled  to  them.  The  oath  of  fidelity, 


VIRGINIA  DUUING  THE  COMMONWEALTH.      3(33 
so  unpalatable  to  the  Puritan  settlers,  was  replaced  by  CHAPTER 

XI. 

a  written  engagement  to  submit  to  the  proprietary's  law- 

ful  authority.  The  inhabitants  were  guaranteed  the  pos-  1658. 
.session  of  their  arms.  The  proprietary  was  specially 
bound  to  uphold  that  act  of  toleration  under  which  the 
Puritans  had  come  into  the  colony,  but  which  they  them* 
selves,  while  they  held  the  power,  had  disregarded,  and, 
so  far  as  Catholics  and  Episcopalians  were  concerned,  had 
formally  set  aside. 

During  the  administration  of  Mathews,  who  succeeded 
Diggs  as  governor  of  Virginia,  the  laws  of  that  colony 
underwent  a  new  revisal,  and  were  codified  in  a  hund- 
red and  thirty-one  acts.  Religion  still  occupied  the  first 
place  in  the  statute  book.  Ecclesiastical  matters  were 
referred  to  the  several  parishes,  to  be  managed,  how- 
ever, as  we  must  suppose,  according  to  the  Presbyterian 
model  then  established  in  England,  and  to  which  the  paro- 
chial clergy  of  that  country  had  very  generally  conform- 
ed ;  an  example  which,  for  aught  that  appears,  those 
of  Virginia  as  readily  followed.  All  the  counties  not 
yet  so  divided  were  required  to  be  laid  out  into  parishes 
by  the  county  courts  ;  and  a  tax  was  to  be  levied  for  the 
erection  of  churches.  So  anxious  had  the  preceding  as- 
sembly been  to  supply  the  pulpits,  that  a  premium  of 
d£20,  about  $100,  had  been  offered  for  every  minister 
imported ;  but  this  act  was  now  dropped.  The  law  of 
England  against  bigamy  was  specially  adopted — a  law, 
it  is  probable,  rather  apt  to  be  overlooked  by  some  who 
emigrated,  leaving  their  families  behind  them.  The  pro- 
bate of  wills  and  oversight  of  orphans  were  intrusted  to 
the  county  courts.  All  courts  were  to  give  judgment 
without  regard  to  errors  of  form.  Five  years'  possession 
of  land  was  to  give  a  title,  and  all  suits  on  notes,  bonds, 
and  judgments  were  required  to  be  commenced  within 


364     HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  five  years.  Poor  persons,  who  had  no  tobacco,  might 
'  tender  other  goods  in  payment  of  their  debts.  Spread- 
1658.  ers  of  false  political  news  were  to  produce  their  authors 
or  be  punished.  Ships  sailing  from  England  with  pas- 
sengers were  to  have  at  least  four  months'  provisions  on 
board.  This  act  would  seem  to  indicate  that  a  consid- 
erable immigration  was  now  going  on.  An  export  duty 
of  ten  shillings  was  imposed  upon  every  hogshead  of  to- 
bacco, weighing  three  hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  exported 
in  Dutch  vessels  elsewhere  thanj  to  England ;  but  free 
trade  was  promised  to  the  Dutch,  and  this  impost  was 
to  be  reduced  to  two  shillings  per  hogshead  in  favor  of 
all  Dutch  vessels  bringing  negroes  to  the  colony.  A  like 
duty  of  two  shillings  per  hogshead  was  imposed  upon 
all  tobacco  exported  to  England  except  in  vessels  Vir- 
ginia-built, in  which  it  was  to  go  duty  free.  Out  of  the 
income  thus  realized  the  governor  was  to  be  paid  a  sal- 
ary of  £600.  Premiums  were  again  offered  for  the 
production  of  silk,  flax,  hops,  wheat,  and  wine.  Hides, 
wool,  and  iron  were  riot  to  be  exported.  Aliens  who 
had  dwelt  in  the  country  five  years,  and  intended  to  re- 
main, were  to  become  free  denizens.  A  more  kindly 
feeling  than  heretofore  was  exhibited  toward  the  Indians, 
who,  by  this  time,  were  thoroughly  subdued.  They  were 
to  be  protected  in  the  possession  of  the  lands  remaining 
to  them,  and,  to  prevent  imposition,  were  not  to  be  al- 
lowed to  sell  those  lands  except  at  quarter  courts.  To 
secure  the  Indian  children  placed  with  the  colonists  for 
education  against  being  sold  as  slaves,  it  was  forbidden 
to  transfer  their  services. 

April.  Shortly  after  the  enactment  of  this  code,  Governor 
Mathews  undertook  to  dissolve  the  Assembly ;  but  his 
authority  to  do  so  was  denied.  The  Assembly  claimed 
the  right  to  elect  all  officers,  declared  existing  commis- 


VIRGINIA  DURING  THE  COMMONWEALTH.      365 

sions  no  longer  valid,  and  ordered  the  public  officers  to  CHAPTER 

obey  no  warrants  unless  signed  by  their  speaker.     Ma- 

thews  yielded,  and  was  re-elected  governor  with  a  coun-  1658. 
oil  such  as  the  burgesses  approved. 

With  this  assumption  of  authority,  the  manner  of 
proceeding  in  the  Virginia  Assembly  became  more  formal 
and  orderly.  Rules  were  adopted  for  that  purpose.  Ab-  1659 
sence  without  leave  was  prohibited,  and  the  members 
were  required  to  give  their  attention  to  the  proceedings 
of  the  house.  Those  who  spoke  were  to  rise,  uncovered, 
and  address  the  speaker.  Personalities,  and  being  "  dis- 
guised with  over  much  drink,"  were  forbidden.  The 
latter  seems  to  have  been  a  prevalent  failing,  as  distinct 
penalties  were  provided  for  the  first,  second,  and  third 
offenses.  To  these  rules  were  presently  added  two  others.  1663. 
No  member  was  to  speak  more  than  once  on  the  same 
matter  at  the  same  sitting ;  nor  were  any  to  "  pipe  it" 
after  the  calling  of  the  roll,  unless  by  license  from  the 
major  part  in  a  vacancy  from  business. 

The  death  of  Cromwell,  and  the  accession  of  his  son 
Richard  as  Lord  Protector,  were  notified  to  the  Virginia  1659. 
Assembly  by  a  letter  from  the  Supreme  Council  in  En-  Dec' 
gland.  It  was  ordered  in  this  same  letter  that,  till  that 
system  could  be  matured  which  the  late  Lord  Protector 
had  contemplated,  but  never  had  found  time  to  complete, 
things  should  remain  in  Virginia  on  the  game  footing  as 
heretofore.  The  Assembly  eagerly  seized  this  oppor- 
tunity for  giving  to  the  late  extension  of  their  authority 
the  semblance  of  a  confirmation  from  England.  They 
voted  unanimously  to  submit  to  his  highness  Richard, 
and  to  accept  the  letter  of  the  Supreme  Council  as  "an 
authentic  manifestation  of  their  lordships'  intentions  for 
the  government  of  Virginia."  It  was  acknowledged  by 
Governor  Mathews,  that,  by  the  existing  system,  the 


366  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  power  of  electing  all  public  officers  resided  in  the  As- 
'      sembly ;  and  he  promised  to  join  in  an  address,  and  to 

1659.  give  his  best  assistance  toward  the  confirmation  of  that 
privilege.     Mathews   was   re-elected   governor   for   two 
years  ;   Clayborne  was  reappointed  secretary.     The  pres- 
ent counselors  were  confirmed  for  life,  except  in  case 
of  high  misdemeanors,  to  be  judged  by  the  Assembly. 
Future  counselors  were  to  be  nominated  by  the  governor, 
and  confirmed  by  the  Assembly,  which  was  to  be  renewed 
every  two  years.     If  warrants  for  a  new  election  were 
not  duly  issued  by  the  governor,  the  sheriffs  were  to  hold 
the  elections  on  their  own  authority. 

1660.  Mathews  died  shortly  after.     News  soon  arrived  of 
March.  those  commotions  in  the  mother  country  resulting  pres- 
ently in  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.     As  there  was  now 
in  England  "no  resident,  absolute,  and  generally  con- 
fessed power,"  the  Assembly  claimed,  during  the  inter- 
regnum, supreme  authority  in  Virginia,  and  ordered  all 
writs  to  issue  in  their  name,  "  until  such  command  and 
commission  come  out  of  England  as  shall  be  by  the  As- 
sembly judged  lawful." 

The  Royalist  triumph  was  already  foreseen,  and  Sir 
William  Berkeley,  after  an  eight  years'  retirement,  was 
now  elected  governor,  and  allowed  the  selection  of  a  sec- 
retary and  counselors,  subject,  however,  to  the  Assem- 
bly's approval.  "  The  new  governor  was  to  call  an  assem- 
bly at  least  once  in  two  years,  and  was  not  to  dissolve 
the  one  then  sitting  except  by  consent  of  the  majority  of 
its  members.  He  was  to  have  for  salary  £700  out  of 
the  export  duty,  fifty  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco  out  of 
the  levy,  and  such  customs  as  might  be  payable  on  Dutch 
vessels  from  New  Netherland.  Hammond  was,  at  the 
same  time,  appointed  major  general  of  the  militia. 
Oct.  At  the  next  session  Berkeley  is  recorded  as  "  his  mag- 


RESTORATION    IN    VIRGINIA  AND   MARYLAND.  3^7 

isty's  governor."  He  had  no  doubt  received,  in  the  inter-  CHAPTER 
val,  a  commission  from  England.  The  Assembly  vntftd 
twenty -two  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco  to  Hammond  1660. 
and  another  "  employed  by  the  governor  and  country  in 
an  address  to  his  magisty  for  a  pardon  to  the  inhabitants," 
and  the  same  for  the  next  year ;  also  eleven  thousand 
pounds  of  tobacco  to  Sir  Henry  Moody,  employed  "in 
an  embassy  to  the  Manhadoes,"  to  reciprocate  several 
messages  from  the  Dutch,  and  to  ratify  a  treaty  of  com- 
merce, though  without  that  acknowledgment  of  the  Dutch 
title  which  it  was  artfully  attempted  to  obtain.  The 
governor  was  authorized  to  undertake  the  building  of  a 
state-house,  and  to  press  for  that  service  ten  men  "of  the 
ordinary  sort  of  people,"  allowing  each  two  thousand 
pounds  of  tobacco  per  annum.  Voluntary  subscriptions 
were  to  be  taken  up  for  the  same  object.  In  addition  to 
his  salary  out  of  the  impost,  the  governor  was  to  have  a 
bushel  of  corn  in  the  ear  from  each  tithable,  and  sixty 
thousand  pounds  of  tobacco  out  of  the  levy. 

Meanwhile,  in  Maryland,  the  fluctuating  state  of  En- 
glish politics  gave  occasion  to  a  new  revolution.  Gov-  March, 
ernor  Fendal,  notwithstanding  his  late  zeal  for  Lord  Bal- 
timore, now  took  sides  with  the  Puritan  party  in  refusing 
to  acknowledge  the  upper  house,  casting  off  the  proprie- 
tary authority,  and  declaring  the  lower  house  of  Assem- 
bly the  sole  source  of  power.  The  restoration  of  Charles 
II.  brought  this  Republican  system  to  a  speedy  close. 
Forgetting  or  forgiving  the  temporizing  policy  of  Balti- 
more, the  king,  at  his  request,  signed  a  letter  to  the 
Marylanders,  in  which  they  were  required  to  submit  to 
Philip  Calvert,  to  whom  the  proprietary  had  transmitted 
a  commission  as  governor.  Fendal  was  tried  and  found 
guilty  of  treason,  but  was  pardoned  ;  and  the  inhabitants 
quietly  submitted  to  Calvert's  authority. 


368  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  COMMONWEALTH. 
CHAPTER   JL  HOUGH  satisfied  with  the  fundamental  laws  as  far 

XII. 

as  they  went,  the  freemen  of  Massachusetts  had  continued 

still  jealous  of  magisterial  discretion,  and  anxious  for  a 
complete  code,  a  specific  punishment  for  every  offense, 
and  the  publication  of  all  laws  by  which  they  were  bound. 
The  magistrates,  on  the  other  hand,  desired  a  certain  ju- 
dicial discretion.  But  they  had  found  themselves  obliged 
to  yield ;  and  a  commission,  consisting  of  two  magistrates, 
two  ministers,  and  two  able  persons  from  among  the  peo- 
ple in  each  county,  had  been  appointed  for  compiling  a 
code.  Being  finished,  and  alphabetically  arranged,  this 
1649.  code  was  printed— a  very  hazardous  experiment,  as  the 
magistrates  thought.  But  the  advantages  and  conven- 
ience of  this  publicity  were  so  obvious,  that  all  the  subse- 
quent laws  were  from  time  to  time  printed.  No  copy  of 
this  code  is  known  to  be  in  existence ;  but  we  are  not 
altogether  ignorant  of  its  contents.  It  increased  the  list 
of  capital  crimes  by  subjecting  to  the  penalty  of  death 
"  stubborn  and  rebellious  sons,"  and  "  children  above  six- 
teen who  curse  or  smite  their  natural  father  or  mother" 
— enactments  borrowed  from  the  Jewish  law.  Rape  was 
also  made  capital — a  provision  formerly  omitted,  because 
Moses  had  not  so  punished  it.  The  sale  of  intoxicating 
liquors  was  restricted  to  certain  persons  licensed  for  that 
purpose.  Courtship  attempted  without  the  permission  of 
the  maid's  parents  or  guardians,  or,  in  their  absence,  of 


NEW   ENGLAND   DURING  THE   COMMONWEALTH.  359 

the  "  nearest  magistrate,"  was  punished  with  fine,  and  CHAPTER 

the  third  offense  with  imprisonment.     It  was  also  deemed 

necessary  to  support,  by  civil  penalties,  the  fundament-  1649. 
al  doctrines  on  which  the  theocracy  rested.  "  Albeit 
faith  is  not  wrought  by  the  sword,  but  the  word,  never- 
theless, seeing  that  blasphemy  of  the  true  God  can  not 
be  excused  by  any  ignorance  or  infirmity  of  human  na- 
ture," therefore  «  no  person  in  this  jurisdiction,  whether 
Christian  or  pagan,  shall  wittingly  and  willingly  presume 
to  blaspheme  his  holy  name,  either  by  willful  or  obstinate 
denying  the  true  God,  or  his  creation  or  government  of 
the  world,  or  shall  curse  God,  or  reproach  the  holy  re- 
ligion of  God,  as  if  it  were  but  a  public  device  to  keep 
ignorant  men  in  awe,  nor  shall  utter  any  other  eminent 
kind  of  blasphemy  of  like  nature  or  degree,"  under  pen- 
alty of  death.  This  enactment,  with  some  modification 
in  its  terms  and  relaxation  of  the  punishment,  is  still  to  be 
found  in  the  Massachusetts  statute-book.  It  has  lately 
been  held  to  be  constitutional  by  the  Supreme  Court  of 
that  state,  upon  argument  in  a  contested  case,  notwith- 
standing an  express  provision  in  the  Massachusetts  Bill 
of  Rights  that  no  person  shall  be  molested  for  his  religious 
profession  or  sentiments.  Constitutions,  indeed,  go  for 
very  little  when  in  conflict  with  the  hereditary  sentiments 
of  their  expositors. 

«  Although  no  human  power  be  lord  over  the  faith 
and  consciences  of  men,  yet  because  such  as  bring  in  dam- 
nable heresies,  tending  to  the  subversion  of  the  Christian 
faith  and  destruction  of  the  souls  of  men,  ought  duly  to 
be  restrained  from  such  notorious  impieties,"  therefore 
"  any  Christian  within  this  jurisdiction  who  shall  go 
about  to  subvert  or  destroy  the  Christian  faith  and  reli- 
gion by  broaching  and  maintaining  any  damnable  here- 
sies, as  denying  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  or  resurrec- 
I.  A  A 


370  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  tion  of  the  body,  or  any  sin  to  be  repented  of  in  the  re- 
'      generate,  or  any  evil  done  by  the  outward  man  to  be  ac- 
1649.  counted  sin,  or  denying  that  Christ  gave  himself  a  ran- 
som for  our  sins,  or  shall  affirm  that  we  are  not  justi- 
fied by  his  death  and  righteousness,  but  by  the  perfec- 
tions of  our  own  works,  or  shall  deny  the  morality  of  the 

\  fourth  commandment,  or  shall  openly  condemn  or  oppose 

the  baptizing  of  infants,  or  shall  purposely  depart  the 
congregation  at  the  administration  of  that  ordinance,  or 
shall  deny  the  ordinance  of  magistracy,  or  their  lawful 
authority  to  make  war,  or  to  punish  the  outward  breaches 
of  the  first  table,  or  shall  endeavor  to  seduce  others  to  any 
of  the  errors  and  heresies  above  mentioned" — any  such 
were  liable  to  banishment.  Jesuits  were  forbidden  to 
enter  the  colony,  and  their  second  coming  was  punishable 
with  death.  Another  law,  a  few  years  after,  subjected 
to  fine,  whipping,  banishment,  and  finally  to  death,  "  any 
who  denied  the  received  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Tes- 
tament to  be  the  infallible  word  of  God."  This  statute, 
also  with  some  modifications  in  the  terms  and  the  pun- 
ishment, is  still  in  force  in  Massachusetts — constitutional, 
no  doubt,  according  to  the  legal  authority  above  cited. 

As  another  and  certainly  far  preferable  means  of 
guarding  against  religious  error,  this  code  gave  a  legal 
establishment  to  a  system  of  free  schools,  already  intro- 
duced into  several  of  the  towns.  "  It  being  one  chief 
project  of  that  old  deluder  Sathan,"  says  the  preamble 
to  this  venerable  law,  "  to  keep  men  from  the  knowledge 
of  the  Scriptures,  as  in  former  times  keeping  them  in  an 
unknown  tongue,  so  in  these  latter  times  by  persuading 
men  from  the  use  of  tongues,  so  that,  at  least,  the  true 
sense  and  meaning  of  the  original  might  be  clouded  with 
false  glosses  of  saint-seeming  deceivers,  and  that  learn- 
ing may  not  be  buried  in  the  grave  of  our  fathers," 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  COMMONWEALTH.    37  I 

therefore   every   township   was  required  to  maintain  a  CHAPTER 

school   for   reading  and  writing,   and  every  town  of  a     

hundred  householders  a  grammar  school,  with  a  teach-  1649. 
er  qualified  "  to  fit  youths  for  the  university."  This 
school  law,  re-enacted  in  Connecticut  in  the  very  same 
terms,  was  adapted  also  by  Plymouth  and  New  Haven. 
Unfortunately  for  the  credit  and  success  of  Williams's 
system  of  religious  freedom,  it  found  no  favor  in  his  col- 
ony. Of  the  exiles  from  Massachusetts  who  resorted 
thither,  many,  indeed,  were  despisers  of  human  learning, 
inclined  to  rest  the  interpretation  of  Scripture  upon  spe- 
cial personal  spiritual  enlightenment — doubtless  the  very 
"saint-seeming  deceivers"  aimed  at  in  the  preamble  to 
the  Massachusetts  act. 

With  the  deaths  of  Winthrop  and  Dudley,  and  the 
firm  establishment  of  the  policy  for  which  they  had  so 
zealously  contended,  seems  to  have  terminated  that 
struggle  in  favor  of  rotation  in  office,  hitherto  an  ob- 
vious feature  in  the  politics  of  Massachusetts.  Their 
mantles  devolved  on  Endicott,  and,  with  the  exception 
of  a  single  term,  during  which  Bellingham  held  the 
office,  he  was  annually  re-elected  as  governor  for  the 
fourteen  years  following.  He  and  his  two  immediate 
successors  died  in  office. 

A  code  for  Connecticut,  compiled  by  Ludlow,  and  1650, 
adopted  by  the  General  Court,  was  copied,  much  of  it    May* 
in  very  words,  from  the  code  of  Massachusetts.      To  the 
Massachusetts  list  of  capital  offenses  the   Connecticut 
code  added  house-breaking,  and  robbery  on  the  third  of- 
fense.     Simple  larceny  was  punished  as  in  Massachu- 
setts, by  requiring  threefold  restitution ;  forgery  by  double 
restitution,  standing  in  the  pillory,  and  disability  to  give 
evidence  or  to  act  as  a  juror.     It  was  forbidden  to  take 
tobacco  publicly.     Strong  waters  could  not  be  sold  with- 


372  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  out  a  license.     The  magistrates*  were  invested  with  dis- 
.  cretionary  powers  for  the  punishment  of  licentiousness — 

1650.  powers  exercised  with  great  rigor.      Debtors  could  not  be 
imprisoned  except  when  suspected  of  concealing  property, 
as  to  which  both  the  debtors  themselves  and  all  persons 
charged  as  colluding  with  them  were  liable  to  be  ex- 
amined under  oath.      The  debtor  was  bound,  if  the  cred- 
itor required  it,  to  pay  his  debt  by  service,  and  might  be 
sold  for  that  purpose,  but  not  « to  any  but  of  the  En- 
glish nation."      This  law  for  selling  the  service  of  debt- 
ors, and  appropriating  the  proceeds  to  the  payment  of 
their  debts,  remained  in  force  in  Connecticut  even  within 
the  present  century.      Runaway   servants  were  to  be 
pursued   at  the  public   expense,   and  were  required  to 
make  up  threefold  the  time  of  their  absence.     On  the 
subject  of  the  Indians  this  code  exhibits  much  anxiety. 
The  militia  law  is  full  and  precise.     Every  town  is  to 
have  a  store  of  powder,  and  on  Sundays  and  lecture 
days  to  be  furnished  with  an  armed  guard,  to  prevent 
sudden  surprises.      Trade  with  the  Indians  in  arms  of 
any  kind,  or  in  dogs,  is  strictly  forbidden.      White  men 
leaving  the  colony  and  joining  the  Indians   are  liable 
to  three  years'  imprisonment.      Every  band  of  Indians 
resident  near  any  plantation  is  to  have  some  sachem  or 
chief  to  be  personally  responsible  for  all  depredations 
committed  by  the  band ;  and,  in  conformity  with  a  rec- 
ommendation of  the  Commissioners  for  the  United  Col- 
onies, if  satisfaction  for  injuries  is  refused  or  neglected, 
the  Indians  themselves  may  be  seized ;   "  and,  because 
it  will  be  chargeable  keeping  them  in  prison,"  they  may 
be  delivered  to  the  injured  party  "  either  to  serve,  or  to 
be  shipped  out  and  exchanged  for  negroes,  as  the  case 
will  justly  bear."     It  thus  appears  that  negro  slavery 
was  authorized  in  Connecticut  as  well  as  in  Massachu- 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  COMMONWEALTH.    373 
setts.      It  was  only  the  heretics  of  Providence  who  pro-  CHAPTER 

XII. 

hibited  perpetual  servitude  by  placing  "black  mankind" 
on  the  same  level  with  regard  to  limitation  of  service  as  1652. 
white  servants.  Unfortunately  for  the  honor  of  Rhode 
Island,  this  regulation,  enacted  during  a  temporary  dis- 
ruption of  the  province,  never  extended  to  the  other 
towns,  and  never  obtained  the  force  of  a  general  law. 

It  was  not  without  much  reluctance  and  hard  pressing 
that  the  Narragansets  discharged  the  heavy  tribute  im- 
posed upon  them.  One  installment  was  paid  in  old  cop-  1647. 
per  kettles  collected  from  the  wigwams,  In  vain  did  Nini- 
gret,  the  Niantic  sachem,  summoned  to  Boston  to  ex- 
plain his  deficiencies,  inquire  "  for  what  the  Narragan- 
sets should  pay  so  much  wampum."  The  arrears  were 
demanded  with  penurious  rigor.  Ninigret,  a  second  time  1649. 
summoned  to  Boston,  pleaded  poverty,  and  insisted  that 
the  amount  was  nearly  paid.  But  the  commissioners 
still  claimed  a  considerable  balance.  They  resolved  to 
have  it  to  the  last  penny.  Captain  Atherton,  sent  into  1650. 
the  Narraganset  country  at  the  head  of  an  armed  party, 
seized  Pessacus  by  the  hair,  in  the  midst  of  his  warriors, 
and  by  threats  and  terror  extorted  the  final  payment.  The 
tribute  of  the  subject  Pequods  having  fallen  into  arrear, 
a  collector  was  appointed  to  look  after  it.  Uncas,  to  1651. 
whom  many  of  these  tributaries  had  been  assigned,  made 
his  appearance  before  the  commissioners,  and  demanded 
to  know  why  this  tribute  was  required  ;  how  long  it  was 
to  last ;  and  if  children  thereafter  born  were  to  pay  it. 
The  origin  of  the  tribute  was  explained,  and  ten  years 
were  fixed  as  the  limit  of  its  continuance. 

Eliot  still  continued  his  missionary  labors  among  the 
Indians  in  the  vicinity  of  Massachusetts  Bay ;  and  a 
settlement  was  now  formed  at  Natick,  about  sixteen 
miles  west  of  Boston,  where  the  converted  Indians  were 


HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  assembled,  and  instructed  in  agriculture  and  the  rearing 
'  of  cattle.  On  the  Island  of  Martha's  Vineyard,  of  which 
1651.  the  jurisdiction  had  been  assigned  to  Massachusetts  by 
the  Commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies,  there  was 
quite  a  body  of  Indians,  and  some  converts  began  to  be 
made  there  also  by  Thomas  Mayhew,  a  son  of  the  grantee 
and  first  settler,  who  had  followed  the  example  of  Eliot 
in  turning  missionary  preacher.  Eliot  himself  appears 
to  have  visited,  with  great  labor  and  fatigue,  most  of  the 
tribes  in  eastern  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth  colony. 
He  was  accustomed  to  make  an  annual  visit  to  the  falls 
of  the  Merrimac,  now  Lowell,  to  preach  to  the  Indians 
assembled  there  to  fish ;  and  Passaconaway,  the  aged  sa- 
chem, was  urgent  for  him  to  settle  in  that  neighborhood. 

It  had  at  length  been  ascertained,  by  repeated  explo- 
rations, that  the  Merrimac  River  came  so  far  from  the 
north,  that  an  east  and  west  line,  in  the  terms  of  the 
Massachusetts  charter,  "three  miles  north  of  any  and 
every  part  of  it,"  if  extended  toward  the  sea-coast,  would 
strike  the  ocean  as  far  east  as  the  mouth  of  the  Kennebec. 
That  line  was  accordingly  claimed  by  Massachusetts  as 
her  northern  boundary,  and  the  present  seemed  a  favora- 
ble opportunity  to  enforce  the  claim. 

About  the  time  of  the  commencement  of  the  civil  wai 
in  England,  in  which  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  took  sides 
with  the  king,  Rigby,  a  Republican  member  of  the  Long 
Parliament,  had  purchased  up  the  old  patent  of  Ligonia, 
known  as  the  "  Plow  Patent,"  and  had  sent  out  as  his 
deputy,  to  claim  possession,  George  Cleves,  already  men- 
tioned as  a  former  agent  in  America  of  Gorges  and  Lord 
Stirling.  This  claim  being  resisted  by  Gorges's  agents, 
Cleves  had  attempted  to  engage  the  United  Colonies  in 
his  quarrel,  proposing  that  Ligonia  should  become  a  mem- 
ber of  that  alliance.  Presently  it  was  agreed  between 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE   COMMONWEALTH.     375 

Cleves  and  those  claiming  authority  under  Gorges,  to  re-  CHAPTER 
fer  the  matter  to  the  Court  of  Assistants  at  Boston,  and  ' 
the  case  was  regularly  tried  there  before  a  jury.  Rig-  1646. 
by's  agent  could  only  show  a  purchase  by  his  principal 
of  the  rights  of  two  out  of  six  or  eight  patentees  of  Li- 
gonia.  On  the  other  hand,  the  deputy  of  Gorges  could 
not  produce  the  original  patent  of  Maine,  but  only  a  copy, 
"  which  was  not  pleadable  in  law."  The  jury  could  not 
agree  on  a  verdict,  but  the  magistrates  persuaded  the 
litigants  to  live  in  peace  till  the  matter  could  be  referred 
to  England.  Rigby  easily  obtained  there,  from  the  Par- 
liamentary Commissioners  for  Plantations,  a  confirma- 
tion of  his  claim ;  and  the  coast  from  the  Kennebec  to 
the  Saco  was  erected  into  the  province  of  Ligonia,  Maine 
being  restricted  to  the  tract  from  the  Saco  to  the  Piscat- 
aqua. 

About  this  time  Gorges  died,  and  his  son  and  heir  1647. 
having  been  repeatedly  written  to  without  answer,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  diminished  province  of  Maine  combined 
for  the  purpose  of  self-government,  and  chose  Edmund 
Godfrey  as  their  chief  magistrate.  It  was  against  this 
province  that  the  annexation  projects  of  Massachusetts 
were  first  directed.  Godfrey  made  a  strenuous  opposi- 
tion, and  got  up  a  petition  to  the  English  Council  of  1651. 
State  ;  but  Massachusetts  meanwhile  sent  four  com- 
missioners to  take  possession.  Kittery  and  Georgiana 
first  submitted,  an  example  presently  followed  by  Wells,  1652. 
Cape  Porpoise,  and  Saco.  The  newly-acquired  towns 
were  erected  into  a  county  called  Yorkshire  ;  the  name 
of  Georgiana  was  changed  to  York  ;  and  the  municipal 
government  exercised  for  ten  years  under  the  city  char- 
ter now  came  to  an  end.  To  the  inhabitants  of  this 
new  county  were  granted  the  same  privileges  possess- 
ed by  those  of  Norfolk,  formed  out  of  the  New  Hamp- 


376  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  shire   towns.      Church   membership   was   not   required 
'      either  as  a  qualification  for  voting  or  for  representing 

1652.  the  towns  in  the  General  Court— a  politic  concession, 
which  served  to  reconcile  the  inhabitants  to  the  new  gov- 
ernment. 

The  adjoining  province  of  Ligonia  was  also  in  a  state 
of  confusion.  Cleves,  the  deputy  governor,  having  quar- 
reled with  his  council,  had  gone  to  England  with  com- 
plaints. Rigby  was  dead ;  his  heir  sent  a  letter  to  the 
council  forbidding  them  to  act  in  his  name,  but  he  does 
not  appear  to  have  appointed  any  substitutes.  This 
territory,  too,  was  claimed  as  within  the  limits  of  the 
Massachusetts  patent.  The  Episcopalian  settlers  made 
some  opposition,  but  the  above-mentioned  concessions 
helped  to  disarm  them.  Black  Point  and  Casco  pres- 
ently submitted,  and  in  the  course  of  five  or  six  years 
the  authority  of  Massachusetts  was  acknowledged  as  far 
as  the  Kennebec. 

A  few  settlers  were  established  at  the  mouth  of  that 
river,  on  the  tract  belonging  to  Plymouth  colony,  for 

1654.  whom  an  Assembly,  presently  held  there  under  a  com- 
mission from  Plymouth,  enacted  a  concise  body  of  laws. 
The  Indian  trade,  which  grew  gradually  less  and  less, 

1660.  was  farmed  out  to  a  company,  to  which,  some  years  after, 
was  sold  also  the  patent  for  the  lands. 

East  of  the  Kennebec,  the  little  colony  of  Pemaquid, 
the  oldest  settlement  on  all  that  coast,  still  retained  its 
separate  existence.  All  east  of  Pemaquid  was  c]aimed 
by  D'Aulney  for  the  Company  of  New  France,  his  trad- 
ing house  nearest  the  English  being  that  on  the  east 
shore  of  the  Penobscot,  at  or  near  the  present  site  of 
Castine. 

In  consequence  of  D'Aulney's  jealous  exclusion  of  the 

1648.  English  colonists  from  the  French  territories,  a  message 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  COMMONWEALTH.  377 

had  been  sent  to  the  governor  of  Quebec,  proposing  free  CHAPTER 
trade — the  first  communication  on  record  between  New  ' 
England  and  Canada.  After  a  long  delay,  an  answer  1651. 
was  returned  by  two  Canadian  priests,  whose  principal 
object,  however,  was  to  obtain  assistance  in  a  bloody  and 
disastrous  war  with  the  Five  Nations  in  which  Canada 
was  then  involved.  This  assistance  was  sought  either  by 
direct  alliance,  leave  to  enlist  volunteers,  or  at  least  per- 
mission for  war  parties  of  the  converted  French  Indians 
on  the  Penobscot  to  pass  through  the  territories  of  the 
United  Colonies  on  their  way  against  the  Five  Nations. 
The  French  envoys  described  in  moving  terms  the  dis- 
tress of  their  converts  and  the  danger  of  their  missions. 
They  appealed  to  their  neighbors  by  the  endearing  name 
of  fellow- Christians  ;  but  what  sympathy  could  there  be 
between  papists  and  Puritans  ?  The  application  had  no 
result ;  the  commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies,  call- 
ing to  mind  the  recent  case  of  D'Aulney  and  La  Tour, 
declined  to  interfere,  and  the  French  messengers  were 
dismissed  with  a  civil  refusal. 

While  extending  her  dominion  toward  the  north  by 
the  annexation  of  Maine  and  Ligonia,  Massachusetts 
was  still  eager  for  the  dismemberment  and  partition  of 
Williams's  Narraganset  Commonwealth.  This  scheme 
was  favored  by  the  conduct  of  Coddington,  who  had  ob- 
tained from  the  English  Council  of  State  a  commission 
for  the  separate  government  of  Aquiday,  by  which  he 
was  constituted  governor  for  life — a  proceeding,  how- 
ever, not  satisfactory  to  a  part  of  the  inhabitants. 

Massachusetts  still  claimed  the  territory  of  Warwick 
by  virtue  of  the  submission  of  the  two  sachems  to  whom 
it  had  originally  belonged,  backed  by  an  alleged  grant 
from  Plymouth  of  any  claim  she  might  have  under  her 
patent.  But  the  Plymouth  commissioners,  disgusted  at 


378  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  late  overbearing  conduct  of  Massachusetts  in  the 

XII 

matter   of  the   impost  levied  at   Say  brook  fort,  denied 
1651.  both  the  fact  and  the  legality  of  any  such  alleged  ces- 
»  sion.     At  the  same  time  they  declined  the  invitation 

of  their  Massachusetts  colleagues  to  claim  jurisdiction 
on  their  own  account.  The  people  of  Warwick  com- 
plained that  their  Indian  neighbors,  dependents  on  Mas- 
sachusetts, were  guilty  of  constant  annoyances  and  dep- 
redations, in  which  it  was  more  than  insinuated  that 
Massachusetts  encouraged  them — conduct  which  might 
seem  to  give  some  color  to  part,  at  least,  of  an  heretical 
opinion  formerly  charged  against  Easton,  now  governor 
of  Rhode  Island,  "  that  the  elect  had  the  Holy  Ghost  and 
also  the  devil  indwelling."  Alleging  the  commands  of  the 
Parliamentary  Commission  for  Plantations,  the  governor 
and  assistants  of  Rhode  Island  applied  to  the  Commis- 
sioners for  the  United  Colonies,  demanding  protection  and 
redress.  But  this  application  was  very  coolly  received. 
There  had  lately  been  two  executions  for  witchcraft,  one 
at  Hartford  and  another  at  Charlestown,  against  which, 
according  to  William  Arnold,  who  acted  as  a  sort  of  spy 
for  Massachusetts,  the  people  at  Warwick  loudly  cried 
out,  expressing  their  belief  "  that  there  were  no  other 
witches  upon  the  earth,  nor  devils,  but  the  ministers  of 
New  England  and  such  as  they" — a  new  heresy  which 
could  not  much  recommend  them  to  the  good  will  of 
their  neighbors. 

As  the  Commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies  would 
do  nothing  to  protect  them,  and  apprehending  even  dan- 
ger to  their  independence,  the  people  of  Providence,  War- 
wick, and  Newport  resolved  on  an  appeal  to  England 
for  the  confirmation  of  their  charter,  protection  against 
the  depredations  of  the  Indian  vassals  of  Massachusetts, 
and  the  recall  of  Coddington's  commission.  A  contribu- 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  COMMONWEALTH.   379 

tion  was  accordingly  raised  to  send  out  agents,  and  Rog-  CHAPTER 
er  Williams  and  John  Clarke  were  deputed  for  that  pur-          ' 
pose.  1651. 

Massachusetts  meanwhile  sought  to  procure  from  the 
Commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies  aid,  or,  at  least, 
sanction  for  subduing  Warwick  by  force.  The  Com-  Sept. 
missioners  for  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  admitted 
that  the  former  proceedings  against  Gorton  had  been  by 
their  consent ;  but  the  Plymouth  commissioners  disclaim- 
ed any  responsibility  for  those  proceedings  ;  and  they 
specially  protested  against  the  Massachusetts  claim  of 
jurisdiction  over  Warwick  by  virtue  of  any  cession  from 
them.  To  such  a  pitch,  indeed,  did  these  differences 
rise,  that  a  meeting  of  the  commissioners,  held  at  Plym- 
outh the  next  year,  was  abruptly  broken  up  on  some  1652 
alleged  informalities,  without  proceeding  to  business.  Sept 
High  words  must  have  passed,  perhaps  something  more, 
since  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  ordered  a  let- 
ter to  be  written  to  the  Governor  of  Plymouth,  demand- 
ing satisfaction  for  an  alleged  affront  to  one  of  their  com- 
missioners. 

Before  embarking  for  England,  Clarke,  with  two  1651. 
other  delegates  from  the  Baptist  Church  at  Newport,  July> 
paid  a  visit  to  a  Baptist  brother  at  Lynn,  "  who,  by 
reason  of  his  advanced  age,  could  not  undertake  so  great 
a  journey  as  to  visit  the  church."  They  even  ven- 
tured, on  a  Sunday  morning,  to  give  a  public  exhorta- 
tion at  his  house ;  for  which  they  were  arrested  in  the 
act,  and  carried  by  force,  in  the  afternoon,  to  hear  the 
regular  preacher,  one  Thomas  Cobbett,  author  of  "  a 
large,  nervous,  and  golden  discourse"  against  the  Bap- 
tists. The  next  day  they  were  sent  to  Boston,  where 
Clarke  was  sentenced  to  pay  £20,  $96,  or  be  whipped. 
His  neglect  to  take  off  his  hat  when  forced  into  the 


380  HISTORY    OF    THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  meeting-house  was  one  charge  against  him.      In  a  ser- 

mon  just  before  the  trial,  Cotton  declared,  that  to  deny 

1651.  infant  baptism  was  to  overthrow  all,  and  was  there- 
fore soul-murder  and  a  capital  offense;  and  so  Endicott 
told  the  prisoners  in  passing  sentence.  He  also  charged 
Clarke  with  preaching  to  the  weak  and  ignorant  what 
he  could  not  maintain  against  the  learned,  and  bade  him 
try  and  dispute  "  with  our  ministers."  Accordingly, 
from  his  prison  Clarke  sent  a  challenge  to  the  Massa- 
chusetts elders,  offering  to  maintain  "that  Jesus  Christ 
had  the  sole  right  of  prescribing  laws  respecting  worship ; 
that  baptism — that  is,  dipping  in  water — was  an  ordi- 
nance to  be  administered  only  to  those  who  gave  evi- 
dence of  repentance  and  faith ;  that  only  such  visible 
believers  constituted  the  Church  ;  that  each  of  them  had 
the  right  to  speak  in  the  congregation,  either  to  inquire 
for  his  own  instruction,  or  to  prophesy  for  the  edification 
of  others  ;  that  at  all  times  and  in  all  places  they  ought 
to  reprove  folly  and  justify  wisdom ;  and  that  no  serv- 
ant of  Jesus  Christ  has  any  authority  to  restrain  any 
fellow-servant  in  his  worship  where  no  injury  is  offered  to 
others."  This  challenge,  however,  was  evaded.  Some 
friends  of  Clarke  paid  his  fine,  and  he  was  released,  with 
an  injunction  to  leave  the  colony. 

Crandal,  one  of  Clarke's  companions,  who  had  been 
fined  £5,  was  released  at  the  same  time.  The  other 
was  Obadiah  Holmes,  for  many  years  a  member  of  the 
Salem  Church,  a  recent  convert  to  Anabaptism,  lately 
excommunicated  by  the  church  of  Seekonk,  in  Plym- 
outh, and  the  more  obnoxious  on  that  account.  He  was 
fined  £30.  "  As  I  went  from  the  bar,"  he  says,  in  a 
letter  to  some  friends  in  London,  "  I  expressed  myself 
in  these  words :  <  I  bless  God  I  am  counted  worthy  to 
suffer  for  the  name  of  Jesus.'  Whereupon  John  Wilson 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  COMMONWEALTH.    381 

(their   pastor,  as  they  call  him)  struck  me  before  the  CHAPTER 
judgment  seat,  and  cursed  me,  saying,  t  The  curse  of  . 

God,  or  Jesus,  go  with  thee.'"  Some  friends  offered  to  1651. 
pay  his  fine,  but  Holmes  declined  it,  and  was  brought 
to  the  whipping-post.  "  I  had  such  a  spiritual  mani- 
festation," he  writes,  u  that  I  could  well  bear  it,  yea, 
and  in  a  manner  felt  it  not,  although  it  was  grievous, 
as  the  spectators  said ;  the  man  striking  with  all  his 
strength  (yea,  spitting  in  his  hand  three  times,  as  many 
affirmed)  with  a  three-corded  whip,  giving  me  therewith 
thirty  strokes.  When  he  had  loosed  me  from  the  post, 
having  joyfulness  in  my  heart  and  cheerfulness  in  my 
countenance,  as  the  spectators  observed,  I  told  the  mag- 
istrates, *  You  have  struck  me  as  with  roses  ;'  and  said, 
moreover,  l  Although  the  Lord  hath  made  it  easy  to  me, 
I  pray  God  it  may  not  be  laid  to«your  charge.' "  John 
Hazel  and  John  Spur  came  up  and  shook  hands  with 
the  prisoner  after  his  punishment,  smiling  and  saying, 
"  Blessed  be  God  !"  They  were  arrested  on  the  spot  for 
contempt  of  authority,  fined  forty  shillings,  and  impris- 
oned. Returning  to  Newport,  Obadiah  Holmes  lived  to 
a  good  old  age,  and  in  1790  his  descendants  were  reckoned 
at  not  less  than  five  thousand  persons. 

Other  strict  exercises  of  authority  were  not  wanting. 
The  town  of  Maiden,  having  presumed  to  settle  a  min- 
ister without  consulting  the  neighboring  churches,  was 
subjected  to  a  fine.  The  offense  thus  punished  without 
any  law  for  it — a  practice,  in  those  times,  too  common  in 
Massachusetts — a  law  was  afterward  enacted,  making 
it  essential  to  the  settling  of  a  minister  to  have  the  con- 
sent both  of  a  council  of  neighboring  churches  and  of 
"  some  of  the  magistrates"  also. 

Some  difficulty  had  occurred  in  finding  a  minister  for 
the  second  church  recently  constituted  in  Boston.  Ward, 


382  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  Peters.   Welde,   and  others   had   returned  to  England, 
and  the  prospects  of  promotion  there  drew  off  several  of 

1651.  the  young  ministers  educated  in  the  colony.      Samuel 
Mather,  a  recent  graduate  of  Harvard  College,  preached 
a  while  in  the  new  church,  and  gave  some  hopes  of  set- 
tling there ;   but  he  preferred  to  go  to  England,  where 
he  obtained  the  senior   fellowship   in   Trinity  College, 
Dublin,  and  the  rectorship  of  St.  Nicholas  in  that  city. 
In  this  emergency,  the  new  church  availed  itself  of  the 
services  of  Michael  Powell,  late  an  inn-keeper  at  Ded- 
ham ;  and  his  exhortations  proved  so  acceptable,  that 
the  church  proposed  to  settle  him  as  minister.     He  was 
"  gifted,"  to  be  sure,  but  then  he  was  "  unlearned." 
The  General  Court  interfered  to  prevent  his  settlement, 
to  which  Powell  very  meekly  submitted.      He  continued, 
however,  to  officiate  as  ruling  elder.      The  Puritan  fa- 
thers of  New  England — those,  that  is,  of  the  conserva- 
tive school  —  esteemed  learning  as  well  as   "spiritual 
gifts"  essential  to  a  minister. 

Williams  and  Clarke,  not  allowed  to  embark  from 
Nov.  Boston,  took  passage  at  Manhattan.  They  were  kindly 
received  in  England  by  Sir  Henry  Vane,  then  a  leading 
member  of  the  Council  of  State ;  and  they  presently 
procured  the  recall  of  Coddington's  commission,  and,  in 
spite  of  the  opposition  "of  all  the  priests,  both  Presby- 

1652.  terian  and  Independent,"  the  confirmation  of  the  Rhode 
Oct'     Island  charter.     Clarke  published  in  London  "  111  News 

from  New  England,"  giving  an  account  of  his  suffer- 
ings, to  which  Cobbett,  minister  of  Lynn,  made  a  reply. 

It  was  upon  this  occasion  that  Sir  Richard  Salton- 
stall,  one  of  the  original  founders  of  the  colony,  wrote  to 
Wilson  and  Cotton,  ministers  of  Boston,  the  following 
letter : 

"  Reverend  and  dear  sir's,  whom  I  unfeignedly  love 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  COMMONWEALTH.  333 

and  respect,  it  doth  not  a  little  grieve  my  spirit  to  CHAPTER 
hear  what  sad  things  are  reported  daily  of  your  tyranny  ' 
and  persecution  in  New  England,  as  that  you  fine,  whip,  1651. 
and  imprison  men  for  their  consciences.  First  you  com- 
pel such  to  come  into  your  assemblies  as  you  know  will 
not  join  you  in  your  worship,  and  when  they  show  their 
dislike  thereof,  or  witness  against  it,  then  you  stir  up 
your  magistrates  to  punish  them  for  such,  as  you  con- 
ceive, their  public  affronts.  Truly,  friends,  this  your 
practice  of  compelling  any,  in  matters  of  worship,  to  do 
that  whereof  they  are  not  fully  persuaded,  is  to  make 
them  sin;  for  so  the  apostle  (Rom.,  xiv.,  23)  tells  us; 
and  many  are  made  hypocrites  thereby,  conforming  in 
their  outward  man  for  fear  of  punishment.  We  pray 
for  you,  and  wish  you  prosperity  every  way,  hoping  the 
Lord  would  have  given  you  so  much  light  and  love 
there,  that  you  might  have  been  eyes  to  God's  people 
here,  and  not  to  practice  those  courses  in  a  wilderness 
which  you  went  so  far  to  prevent.  These  rigid  ways 
have  laid  you  very  low  in  the  hearts  of  the  saints.  I 
do  assure  you  I  have  heard  them  pray  in  the  public  as- 
semblies that  the  Lord  would  give  you  meek  and  hum- 
ble spirits,  not  to  strive  so  much  for  uniformity  as  not 
to  keep  the  unity  of  the  spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace.  I 
hope  you  do  not  assume  to  yourselves  infallibility  of 
judgment,  when  the  most  learned  of  the  apostles  con- 
fesseth  he  knew  but  in  part,  and  saw  but  darkly,  as 
through  a  glass ;  for  God  is  light,  and  no  further  than 
he  doth  illumine  us  can  we  see,  be  our  parts  and  learn- 
ing ever  so  great.  O  that  all  those  that  are  brethren, 
though  yet  they  can  not  think  and  speak  the  same 
thing,  might  be  of  one  accord  in  the  Lord !" 

To  this  noble  remonstrance — and  it  was  not  the  first 
of  the  same  sort  which  Saltonstall  had  made — Wilson  and 


384  HISTORY,  OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  Cotton  wrote  a  very  elaborate  reply.  They  profess  to  be 
friends  of  peace  and  moderation,  but  fully  justify  the 
1651.  punishments  inflicted  on  Clarke  and  Holmes.  "Better 
be  hypocrites,"  they  say,  "  than  profane  persons.  Hyp- 
ocrites give  God  part  of  his  due,  the  outward  man ;  but 
the  profane  person  giveth  God  neither  outward  nor  in- 
ward man."  "  You  know  not  if  you  think  we  came 
into  this  wilderness  to  practice  those  courses  which  we 
fled  from  in  England.  We  believe  there  is  a  vast  differ- 
ence between  men's  inventions  and  God's  institutions ; 
we  fled  from  men's  inventions,  to  which  we  else  should 
have  been  compelled ;  we  compel  none  to  men's  inven- 
tions." Yet,  after  this  downright  claim  of  a  divine 
character  for  their  system,  with  an  inconsistency  too 
common  to  surprise,  they  add,  "We  are  far  from  arro- 
gating infallibility  of  judgment,  or  affecting  uniformity ; 
uniformity  God  never  required,  infallibility  he  never 
granted  us.  We  content  ourselves  with  unity  in  the 
foundation  of  religion  and  church  order." 

About  the  same  time  Williams  sent  a  warm  remon- 
strance to  his  old  friend  and  disciple  Governor  Endicott, 
against  these  violent  proceedings.  The  Massachusetts 
theocracy  could  not  complain  that  none  showed  them 
their  error.  They  did  not  persevere  in  the  system  of 
persecution  without  having  its  wrongfulness  fully  point- 
ed out. 

The  quantity  of  wampum  in  circulation  had  greatly 
increased  by  exactions  from  the  subject  Indians  and  oth- 
erwise, while  the  demand  for  it  was  diminished  by  the 
decline  of  the  traffic  with  the  Eastern  Indians,  now  al- 
most engrossed  by  D'Aulney.  A  finishing  blow  was 
given  to  its  currency  by  an  order  made  in  Massachu- 
setts to  receive  it  no  longer  in  payment  of  taxes.  As 
fast  as  coin  came  in  by  trade  with  the  West  Indies,  it 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  COMMONWEALTH.  335 

was  shipped  to  England  to  pay  for  goods.      To  stop  this  CHAPTEB 

drain  of  specie,  Massachusetts  was  induced  to  try  the 

experiment  of  a  local  coinage.  A  mint  was  set  up  at  165] 
Boston,  which  coined  shillings,  sixpences,  and  three- 
pences, with  a  pine  tree  on  one  side,  and  "  New  En- 
gland" on  the  other.  These  pieces  were  alloyed  one 
fourth  below  the  British  standard — an  experiment  often 
tried  elsewhere,  under  the  fallacious  idea  that,  thus  de- 
based, they  would  not  be  exported.  Thus  it  happened 
that  the  pound  currency  of  New  England  came  to  be 
one  fourth  less  valuable  than  the  pound  sterling  of  the 
mother  country — a  standard  afterward  adopted  by  the 
English  Parliament  for  all  the  North  American  colonies 
The  use  of  wampum  as  a  currency  for  small  transac- 
tions seems,  however,  to  have  been  kept  up  till  the  end 
of  the  century  and  later. 

We  have  already  had  occasion  to  allude  to  the  con- 
troversy as  to  bounds  and  territories  carried  on  by  the 
people  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  with  their  Dutch 
neighbors.      This  dispute,  of  which  more  will  be  said  in 
the  next  chapter,  had  been  recently  allayed  by  an  arbi- 
tration and  a  treaty  of  limits.      But  very  soon  it  re-  1650 
vived  again,  and  with  new  force,  by  reason  of  obstacles  1651. 
put  by  the  Dutch  to  the  re-establishment  by  New  Haven 
of  her  former  settlement  and  trading-house  on  the  Dela- 
ware.     The  English  Council  of  State  having  declared 
war   against   Holland,  the  people   of  New  Haven  and  1652. 
Connecticut  were  anxious,  also,  for  a  war  against  New 
Netherland.     Uncas,  the  Mohegan  sachem,  always  ready 
for  mischief,  spread  a  report  that  Ninigret,  the  Niantic 
sachem,  had  visited  New  Amsterdam  during  the  winter,  1653. 
and  had  arranged  with  the  Dutch  governor  a  grand  plot, 
in  which    it  was  said   that  even  the  praying  Indians 
were  engaged,  for  a  general  Indian  insurrection,  and  the 
I.  BB 


386  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  murder  of  all  the  New  England  colonists.  In  conse- 
quence  of  this  report,  the  Commissioners  for  the  United 
1653.  Colonies  assembled  in  special  session  at  Boston,  and  sent 
May.  messengers  and  interrogatories  to  Ninigret  and  Pessacus, 
both  of  whom  totally  denied  any  knowledge  of  the  pre- 
tended plot.  Stuyvesant,  the  Dutch  governor,  sent  also 
an  indignant  denial,  expressing  his  desire  that  an  inves- 
tigation might  be  made  at  New  Amsterdam.  Three  en- 
voys were  accordingly  sent  thither ;  and  to  be  ready,  in 
case  "  God  called  the  colonies  to  war,"  five  hundred  men 
were  ordered  to  be  raised.  These  envoys,  not  able  to 
agree  with  the  Dutch  authorities  as  to  the  method  of 
proceeding,  crossed  to  Long  Island,  where  they  took  the 
ex-parte  affidavits  of  several  persons,  English  and  In- 
dians, especially  of  Underbill,  who  now  acted  a  very  zeal- 
ous part  against  his  late  Dutch  employers.  The  only 
foundation  for  the  reported  Indian  plot  would  seem  to 
have  been  Stuyvesant's  having  said  that,  in  case  the 
English  attacked  him,  he  should  endeavor  to  strengthen 
himself  with  the  Indians. 

Upon  the  strength  of  the  testimony  thus  taken,  the 
commissioners  assembled  at  Boston  determined  on  war. 
But  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  in  session  at  the 
same  time,  desired  the  opinion  and  advice  of  the  elders, 
and  the  documents  were  referred  to  a  joint  committee  of 
the  court  and  the  commissioners,  to  prepare  a  statement 
of  facts  on  which  that  opinion  might  be  taken.  The  com- 
mittee could  not  agree,  and  two  statements  were  drawn 
up.  The  elders  saw,  in  the  documents  laid  before  them, 
plain  evidence  of  an  "  execrable  plot  tending  to  the  de- 
struction of  many  dear  saints  of  God,"  but  they  did  not 
find  the  proofs  of  it  so  "  fully  conclusive  as  to  clear  up 
present  proceedings  to  war."  Others,  however,  viewed 
the  matter  differently.  "  Many  pensive  hearts"  at  Sa- 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE   COMMONWEALTH.    397 

lem,  headed  by  their  minister,  sent  a  memorial  to  the  CHAPTER 

J                                                                                xii. 
commissioners,  urging  the  justice  and  necessity  of  hos- L. 

tilities.  Six  out  of  the  eight — the  constitutional  major-  1653 
ity — were  sufficiently  inclined  to  this  step ;  but  they 
found  an  unexpected  and  insuperable  obstacle  in  the  de- 
nial, by  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  of  any 
power  in  the  commissioners  to  declare  an  "  offensive  war" 
except  by  unanimous  consent.  An  able  and  eloquent 
paper,  put  forth  by  the  court  in  defense  of  this  position, 
concluded  in  the  following  spirited  terms  :  "It  can  be  no 
less  than  a  contradiction  to  affirm  that  the  supreme  power, 
which  we  take  to  be  the  general  court  of  every  jurisdic- 
tion, can  be  commanded  by  others ;  an  absurdity  in  pol- 
icy that  an  entire  government  and  jurisdiction  should 
prostitute  itself  to  the  command  of  strangers  ;  a  scandal 
in  religion  if  a  general  court  of  Christians  should  be 
obliged  to  act  and  engage  on  the  faith  of  six  delegates, 
against  their  consciences — all  which  must  be  admitted 
in  case  we  acknowledge  ourselves  bound  to  undertake  an 
offensive  war  upon  the  bare  determination  of  the  com- 
mission." 

The  session  of  the  commissioners  having  broken  up  in 
disgust,  the  towns  of  Stamford  and  Fairfield,  on  the  Dutch 
frontier,  headed  by  Ludlow,  undertook  to  raise  volunteers 
and  to  make  war  against  the  Dutch  on  their  own  account; 
but  this  irregular  proceeding  was  suppressed  with  a  se- 
verity so  much  to  Ludlow's  dissatisfaction,  that  he  emi- 
grated to  Virginia.     Despairing  of  aid  from  Massachu- 
setts, Connecticut  and  New  Haven  united  in  a  solici-     Oct. 
tation  to  Cromwell,  between  whom  and  Cotton   some 
complimentary  letters  had  lately  passed.     They  besought 
the  Lord  General  and  the  Council  of  State  to  fit  out  an 
expedition  for  the  conquest  of  New  Netherland.     Mean- 
while, they  carried  on  a  warm  dispute  with  Massachu- 


388  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  setts  as  to  the  true  interpretation  of  the  articles  of  union. 
.  At  the  regular  annual  meeting  of  the  commissioners  this 

1653.  controversy  was  renewed.     The  commission  seemed  to 
Sept.     ke  just  on  the  point  of  breaking  up  forever,  when  the 
Massachusetts  Court,  by  an  ambiguous  sort  of  conces- 
sion, induced  the  commissioners  to  proceed  to  business. 

The  tributary  Indians  at  the  east  end  of  Long  Island 
had  complained  of  hostilities  commenced  against  them 
by  the  Niantics.  Ninigret,  being  sent  for  by  order  of  the 
commissioners,  had  returned  a  "  proud,  presumptuous, 
and  offensive  answer."  The  commissioners  thereupon 
conceived  themselves  "  called  by  God  to  make  a  present 
war  against  Ninigret,"  and  they  ordered  two  hundred 
and  fifty  men  to  be  raised  for  that  purpose.  Bradstreet, 
one  of  the  Massachusetts  commissioners,  dissented  from 
this  vote.  In  his  opinion,  the  United  Colonies  were  un- 
der no  obligation  to  protect  the  Long  Island  Indians,  nor 
to  engage  in  Indian  quarrels,  "  the  grounds  whereof  they 
can  not  well  understand."  The  Massachusetts  Court  sus- 
tained this  sensible  objection ;  and  as  they  saw  no  suffi- 
cient reason  for  war,  they  "  dared  not  exercise  authority 
to  levy  men."  Thus  a  second  time,  by  the  opposition  of 
Massachusetts,  were  the  commissioners'  warlike  inten- 
tions defeated. 

The  solicitations  addressed  to  Cromwell  were  not  al- 
together without  success.     Robert  Sedgwick  and  John 
Leverett,  the  former  lately  chosen  to  succeed  Gibbons 
as  major  general  of  Massachusetts,  the  latter  one  of  the 
recent  envoys  to  New  Amsterdam,  and  late  a  captain  in 
1654.  the  Parliamentary  army,  were  authorized  to  undertake 
an  expedition  against  New  Netherland,  toward  which 
Cromwell,  now  Lord  Protector,  furnished  four  armed 
ships,  with   a   small   body   of  troops,   authority   being 
given  to  the  commissioners  to  raise  more  in  New  En- 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  COMMONWEALTH.    339 

gland.      Roger  Williams  entertained  grateful  feelings  to-  CHAPTER 

ward  the  Dutch  of  New  Netherland,  and  by  his  inter-, _ 

ference  the  sailing  of  this  expedition  was  a  little  delayed.  1654. 
When  the  armament  arrived  in  New  England  the  Dutch 
war  was  over ;  and  by  the  time  the  New  England  con- 
tingents were  ready,  news  of  the  peace  reached  Boston.      July, 

Instead  of  proceeding  against  New  Netherland,  Aca- 
die  became  the  object  of  attack.  It  was  a  time  of  peace 
between  France  and  England  ;  but  Cromwell  alleged  that 
a  sum  of  money,  promised  by  France  in  consideration 
of  the  cession  of  Acadie,  had  never  been  paid,  and  that 
the  cession,  in  consequence,  was  not  binding.  D'Aul- 
ney  was  dead,  and  La  Tour,  lately  returned  from  Hud- 
son's Bay,  having  married  the  widow  of  his  old  enemy 
and  rival,  had  thus  recovered  possession  of  Port  Royal, 
St.  John's,  Penobscot,  and  the  other  Acadien  trading 
posts.  But  D'Aulney's  principal  creditor  in  France 
had  renewed  the  old  complaints  against  La  Tour,  had 
obtained  an  order  to  take  possession  of  all  D'Aulney's 
American  property,  and  for  that  purpose  had  just  arrived, 
when  both  he  and  La  Tour  found  themselves  obliged  to 
surrender  to  Leverett  and  Sedgwick.  The  dexterous  La 
Tour  now  revived  his  claims  under  the  old  grant  to  his 
father  from  Sir  William  Alexander ;  and,  two  years  aft- 
er, Cromwell  made  a  new  grant  of  Nova  Scotia  to  La 
Tour,  Crowne,  and  Thomas  Temple,  brother  of  the  cel- 
ebrated Sir  William  Temple,  and  soon  sole  proprietor. 

Some  three  years  previous  to  the  present  time,  the 
bankrupt  Gibbons  had  removed  to- Maryland,  being  ap- 
pointed by  the  proprietary  admiral  of  that  colony  and 
one  of  the  council.  He  built  a  wind-mill  at  St.  Mary's  ; 
but,  dying  there  this  year,  his  widow  transferred  the  mill 
to  Lord  Baltimore  in  payment  of  a  debt  of  £100  due 
by  her  late  husband  to  his  lordship.  Previous  to  the 


390  HISTORY   OF    THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  surrender  of  Acadie  he  had  twice  sent  to  La  Tour  to 

XIT 

'      demand  payment  of  his  old  debt,  now  swelled  by  inter  - 
1654.  est  and  charges  to  more  than  £4000,  but  it  does  not 
appear  that  he  met  with  any  success. 

At  the  next  annual  meeting  of  the  Commissioners  for 
the  United  Colonies,  Bellingham  having  been  this  year 
chosen  governor  in  Endicott's  place,  and  the  New  Neth- 
erland  question  being  now  out  of  the  way,  Massachusetts 
yielded  the  disputed  point  of  interpretation,  and  war  was 
declared  against  Ninigret.  Two  hundred  and  seventy 
men  were  voted  for  an  expedition  against  him,  the  choice 
of  commander  being  left  to  Massachusetts,  which  was  to 
furnish  the  greater  part  of  the  troops.  Major  Willard, 
appointed  upon  this  service,  marched  with  orders  to  com- 
pel Ninigret  to  give  up  those  Pequod  subjects  of  his  for 
whom  the  tribute  was  in  arrear ;  to  give  satisfaction  for 
his  past  misconduct ;  to  leave  the  Long  Islanders  in  peace ; 
and  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  present  expedition.  But 
Ninigret  "  swamped  himself,"  and  the  troops  presently 
returned,  upon  the  strength  of  an  illusive  stipulation  on 
his  part  to  give  up  the  Pequods.  This  bootless  result 
gave  great  dissatisfaction  in  the  other  colonies,  where  it 
was  even  alleged  that  Massachusetts,  by  the  choice  of  an 
incapable  commander,  if  not,  indeed,  by  secret  instruc- 
tions, had  purposely  defeated  the  object  of  the  expedition. 
The  Lord  Protector  Cromwell  had  no  sooner  made 
peace  with  the  Dutch  than  he  declared  war  against 
Spain,  and  dispatched  a  fleet  and  army  under  Penn  and 
Venables  to  attack  the  Spanish  West  Indies.  Winslow, 
who  had  hitherto  remained  in  England  as  agent  for  Mas- 
sachusetts, in  which  office  he  was  presently  succeeded  by 
Leverett,  went  in  this  fleet  as  one  of  Cromwell's  com- 
missioners to  superintend  the  conquered  countries.  By 
volunteers  from  Barbadoes  and  the  Leeward  Islands,  tho 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  COMMONWEALTH.  391 

army  was  raised  to  ten  thousand  men,  the  first  of  those  CHAPTER 

J                                                                                                 xii. 
great  armaments,  so  many  of  which  were  subsequently 

sent  from  Europe  to  perish  in  the  West  Indies  from  the  1654. 
effects  of  the  climate.  St.  Domingo  was  the  object  aimed 
at ;  but  from  that  island  the  expedition  was  repulsed  with 
disgrace.  The  fleet  then  proceeded  to  Jamaica,  of  which 
possession  was  taken.  At  the  date  of  its  conquest  that 
island  contained  but  a  few  thousand  inhabitants,  partly 
enervated  descendants  of  the  old  Spanish  colonists,  partly 
negro  slaves,  who  took  that  opportunity  to  escape  into  the 
interior,  and  to  establish  there  an  independent  commu- 
nity, conspicuous  afterward  in  the  history  of  the  island. 
Sedgwick,  appointed  by  Cromwell  to  succeed  Winslow, 
who  had  died  shortly  after  the  repulse  from  St.  Domingo, 
found  things,  on  his  arrival  at  Jamaica,  "  in  a  sad,  de- 
plorable, and  distracted  condition ;"  the  soldiers,  a  large 
part  of  them  from  the  English  West  India  settlements, 
"  so  lazy  arid  idle  as  it  can  not  enter  into  the  heart  of 
any  Englishman  that  such  blood  should  run  in  the  veins 
of  any  born  in  England."  As  the  other  commissioners 
were  dead,  in  conjunction  with  the  principal  military  of- 
ficers, Sedgwick  framed  an  instrument  of  government, 
constituting  a  Supreme  Executive  Council,  with  himself 
at  the  head.  Cromwell  was  very  anxious  to  people  the 
island,  possession  of  which  he  was  determined  to  retain. 
A  thousand  girls  and  young  men  were  ordered  to  be  listed 
in  Ireland  and  sent  over.  The  administrators  of  the 
Scottish  government  were  directed  to  apprehend  all 
"  known  idle,  masterless  robbers  and  vagabonds,  male  and 
female,"  for  transportation  thither, ;  and  that  there  might 
be  a  due  admixture  of  religion  and  energy,  agents  were 
dispatched  to  New  England  for  emigrants.  The  people 
of  New  Haven,  disappointed  and  unsuccessful  in  their 
mercantile  undertakings,  were  impoverished,  uneasy,  and 


392  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  disposed  to  remove.     They  had  entertained  thoughts  ol 
transferring  themselves  to  Ireland,  where  Cromwell  had 

1654.  made  extensive  confiscations.     The  Protector  was  anxious 
they  should  remove  to  Jamaica  ;  and,  with  his  usual  art, 
employed  for  that  purpose  arguments  addressed  to  their  pe- 
culiar religious  ideas.     But  the  magistrates  opposed  this 
migration,  and  very  few  went.      Sedgwick  was  raised  by 
Cromwell  to  the  rank  of  major  general,  with  the  supreme 
command  of  the  island,  but  died  shortly  'after  receiving 
the   appointment.     Vassall  presently  migrated  thither, 
and  established  several  valuable  plantations. 

1655.  As  the  incursions  of  the  Niantics  into  Long  Island 
Sept-     still  continued,  a  vessel  was  fitted  out  by  the  Commis- 
sioners for  the  United  Colonies  to  cruise  in  the  Sound, 
to  intercept  their  canoes.      Uncas,   presuming   on  the 
protection  of  his  white  allies,  grew  more  turbulent  and 
overbearing  than   ever.      He  soon  became  involved  in 
quarrels  with  his  neighbors,  in  which  he  strove  to  en- 
gage the  colonists  also  j  but  this  time  they  resolved  to 
let  the  Indians  fight  it  out.      The  Pequods  who  had  been 
placed  under  Uncas's  authority  had  repeatedly  complain- 
ed of  his  oppressions.      At  first  these  complaints  had  been 
very  coldly  received ;   but  the  misbehavior  of  Uncas  be- 
came now  so  notorious,  that  the  remnants  of  the  Pe- 
quods, relieved  from  his  yoke,  were  allowed  to  settle  in 
two  villages,  one  on  each  side  of  the  Mystic  River,  un- 
der rulers  selected  for  them  by  the  Commissioners  for 
the  United  Colonies.      Humphrey  Atherton,  Sedgwick's 
successor  as  major  general  of  Massachusetts,  was  ap- 
pointed superintendent  of  all  the  subject  Indians,  an  of- 

1656.  fice  in  which  he  was  speedily  succeeded  by  Daniel  Goo- 
kin,  whose  emigration  from  Virginia  has  been  formerly 
mentioned.  The  sale  of  horses  or  boats  to  the  Indians 
was  strictly  prohibited  and  the  Commissioners  for  the 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE   COMMONWEALTH.    393 

United  Colonies  suggested  that,  in  case  of  war,  "  mastiff  CHAPTER 
dogs  might  be  of  good  use."  

The  "  great  Cotton,"  now  dead,  was  succeeded  in  the  1655. 
church  at  Boston  by  Norton ;  not,  however,  without  loud 
reclamations  on  the  part  of  the  people  of  Ipswich,  from 
whom  he  was  thus  taken  away — complaints  which  it  re- 
quired the  authority  of  the  General  Court  and  of  several 
ecclesiastical  councils  to  quiet.  Hitherto,  in  Massachu- 
setts, the  settlement  of  ministers  had  been  left  to  the  zeal 
of  the  churches.  But  a  law  lately  passed,  though  not  1654. 
without  a  good  deal  of  opposition,  required  every  town 
to  support  a  minister,  the  burden  to  be  laid  "upon  the 
whole  society  jointly,  whether  in  church  order  or  not." 
This  enactment  would  have  troubled  Cotton,  who  es- 
teemed it  an  evident  sign  of  a  declining  state  of  religion 
when  law  had  to  be  resorted  to  for  upholding  the  relig- 
ious establishment. 

It  was  also  enacted  that  none  should  be  allowed  to  sit 
as  deputies  in  the  General  Court  who  did  not  hold  to  the 
orthodox  creed.  The  laws  against  the  Baptists  were 
rigidly  enforced.  Dunster,  the  learned  president  of  Har- 
vard College,  indicted,  tried,  and  fined  for  the  expression 
of  Anabaptist  opinions,  was  obliged  to  resign  his  office. 
Chauncy,  his  no  less  learned  successor,  was  somewhat 
infected  with  the  same  errors ;  for,  though  he  admitted 
infant  baptism,  he  held  to  the  practice  of  immersion. 
But  he  promised  to  keep  his  opinions  to  himself. 

Massachusetts  even  undertook  a  supervision  of  her 
neighbors   of  Plymouth,   whom  she  represented  to  the  1656. 
Commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies  "  as  wanting  to    Sept* 
themselves  in  a  due  acknowledgment  of,  and  encourage- 
ment to,  ministers  of  the  Gospel."      Nor  was  this  com- 
plaint without  effect.      The  General  Court  of  Plymouth 
passed  a  law  the  next  year  requiring  the  towns  to  tax  1657: 


394  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  themselves  for  the  support  of  ministers  and  grammar 
schools — a  policy  warmly  favored  by   Thomas  Prince, 
1657.  successor  to  Bradford  in  the  office  of  governor,  which 
station  Bradford  had  held  ever  since  the  foundation  of 
the  colony,  five  years  excepted,  in  which  "  by  importu- 
nity he  got  off,"  and  Winslow  and  Prince  supplied  his 
place.      Prince,  like  Bradford,  was  one  of  the  original 
Plymouth  Pilgrims,  but  more  inclined  than  his  prede 
'  6essor  to  go  the  full  length  of  the  Massachusetts  policy. 
He  was  annually  re-elected  for  the  next  sixteen  years. 

Connecticut  had  lost  the  services  of  Haynes  and  Hop- 
kins, so  long  alternate  governors.  Haynes  was  dead  ; 
Hopkins  had  gone  to  England,  where  he  received  high 
promotion  from  Cromwell.  Thomas  Wells  was  governor 
in  1655  and  1658 ;  John  Webster  in  1656,  and  John 
Winthrop  the  younger  in  1657,  1659,  and,  the  law  of 
rotation  being  repealed,  the  five  following  years  also. 

After  publishing  in  England  a  rejoinder  to  Cotton, 

"  The  Bloody  Tenet  yet  more  Bloody  by  Mr.  Cotton's 

Attempt  to  wash  it  White,"  also  a  tract  entitled  "  The 

Hireling  Ministry  none  of  Christ's,"  Roger  Williams, 

leaving  Clarke  to  guard  the  interests  of  Rhode  Island  at 

1654.  the  court  of  the  Protector,  had  returned  to  New  England 

June.    jn  Leverett's  fleet,  with  a  letter  of  safe-conduct  from 

Cromwell's  council,  securing  to  him  free  passage  at  all 

times  through  all  parts  of  the  United  Colonies. 

The  Narraganset  plantations,  meanwhile,  had  fallen 
into  no  little  confusion.    William  Dyer,  former  secretary, 
had  arrived  about  a  year  previously,  with  the  order  of  the 
Supreme  Council  of  State  vacating  Coddington's  commis- 
sion, and  continuing  the  Providence  charter  in  force  till  fur- 
1653.  ther  order.     Dyer  took  upon  himself  to  call  a  convention 
Feb.  18.  a-k  Portsmouth  to  consider  these  letters.    But  some  misun- 
derstanding arose  as  to  whether  the  legislative  and  judi- 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE   COMMONWEALTH.    395 

oial  acts  during  the  separation  should  be  esteemed  valid  CHAPTER 

or  not ;   and,  at  the  ensuing  election,  the  towns  on  the . 

island  and  those  on  the  main  organized  separately.  The  1653. 
new  government  on  the  island  demanded  the  records  of  Ma?  17- 
Coddington,  but  he  fled  with  them  to  Boston.  The  war 
with  Holland  being  then  pending,  Dyer,  who  had  ruined 
himself  by  contentions  and  lawsuits  with  Coddington, 
obtained  a  commission  to  himself  and  Captain  Underhill 
to  act  against  the  Dutch  of  New  Netherland,  and  a  piece 
of  cannon  and  twenty  men  were  sent  to  co-operate  with 
the  English  settlers  on  the  east  end  of  Long  Island,  plun- 
der being  the  great  object.  It  was  at  this  very  time 
that  the  Commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies  were  de- 
feated in  their  design  of  declaring  war  against  New  Neth- 
erland by  the  firmness  of  Massachusetts.  Providence 
and  Warwick  also  protested  against  being  drawn  into  Aug.  13 
a  war  with  the  Dutch.  The  disputes  reached  a  high 
pitch  ;  and  Williams,  returning  home,  brought  with  him 
an  admonitory  letter  from  Sir  Henry  Vane,  who  had 
lately  retired  from  the  public  service,  in  consequence  of 
Cromwell's  violent  close  of  the  Rump  Parliament,  and 
the  subsequent  dissolution  of  the  Council  of  State.  That 
old  friend  of  the  colony  inquired,  "  How  is  it  that  there 
are  such  divisions  among  you — such  headiness,  tumults, 
disorder,  injustice  ?  The  noise  echoes  into  the  ears  of 
all,  as  well  friends  as  enemies,  by  every  return  of  ships 
from  those  parts.  Are  there  no  wise  men  among  you — 
no  public,  self-denying  spirits  ?"  And  the  letter  ends 
with  urging  union  and  reconciliation. 

The  reception  of  Williams  was  at  first  so  dubious,  and 
his  attempts  at  conciliation  so  little  regarded,  that  he  de- 
clared himself  "  like  a  man  in  a  fog."  He  found  it  nec- 
essary to  address  a  very  plain  and  strong  remonstrance 
to  his  fellow-townsmen  of  Providence,  recapitulating  his 


396  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  labors  and  services  in  behalf  of  the  colony,  and  for  the 
cause  of  "  freedom  of  conscience,"  both  of  which  were 
1653.  now  put  to  hazard  by  their  senseless  contentions.  This 
remonstrance  had  the  desired  effect ;  the  town  agreed 
upon  steps  toward  conciliation ;  and  Williams  was  de- 
Aug.  27.  puted  to  answer  Vane's  letter.  Having  recounted,  by 
way  of  "  first  answer"  and  excuse  for  their  dissensions, 
the  misbehavior  of  Coddington  and  Dyer,  the  letter  adds : 
"  Our  second  answer  is  (that  we  may  not  lay  all  the  load 
upon  other  men's  backs),  that  possibly  a  sweet  cup  hath 
rendered  many  of  us  wanton  and  too  active  ;  for  we  have 
long  drunk  of  the  cup  of  as  great  liberties  as  any  people 
that  we  can  hear  of  under  the  whole  heaven.  We  have 
not  only  been  long  free  (together  with  all  New  England) 
from  the  iron  yoke  of  wolfish  bishops  and  their  popish 
ceremonies  (against  whose  cruel  oppressions  God  raised 
up  your  noble  spirit  in  Parliament),  but  we  have  sitten 
quiet  and  dry  from  the  streams  of  blood  spilled  by  that 
war  in  our  native  country.  We  have  not  felt  the  new 
chains  of  the  Presbyterian  tyrants,  nor,  in  this  colony'* 
— a  significant  parenthesis — "  have  we  been  consumed 
with  the  over-zealous  fire  of  the  so-called  godly  ministers. 
Sir,  we  have  not  known  what  an  excise  means ;  we  have 
almost  forgot  what  tithes  are,  yea,  or  taxes,  either  to 
church  or  commonwealth.  We  could  name  other  special 
privileges,  ingredients  of  our  sweet  cup,  which  your  great 
wisdom  knows  to  be  powerful,  except  with  more  than  or- 
dinary watchfulness,  to  render  the  best  of  men  wanton 
and  forgetful." 

Aug.  31.       Commissioners   from  the  four  towns  presently  met, 
when  it  was  agreed  that  all  past  acts  should  be  valid, 
and  the  government  for  the  future  according  to  the  char- 
Sept.  12.  ter.      At  a  general  election,  held  shortly  after,  Williams 
was  chosen  president,  and  letters  of  "  humble  thanksgiv- 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  COMMONWEALTH.  397 

ing"  were  ordered  to  be  written  to  his  highness  the  Lord  CHAPTER 
Protector  and  Sir  Henry  Vane.  ' 

Hardly  was  Williams  installed  in  office  when  a  paper  1653. 
was  sent  to  the  town  of  Providence,  no  doubt  by  one 
Harris,  who  proclaimed  similar  sentiments  at  the  next 
court  of  elections,  u  against  all  earthly  powers,  Parlia- 
ments, laws,  charters,  magistrates,  prisons,  punishments, 
rates,  yea,  against  all  kings  and  princes,"  and  "  that  it 
was  blood-guiltiness  and  against  the  rule  of  the  Gospel  to 
execute  judgment  upon  transgressors." 

To  this  doctrine  of  non-resistance  and  no  government, 
not  altogether  without  its  advocates  even  at  the  present 
day,  Williams  made  the  following  answer  :  "  That  ever 
I  should  speak  or  write  a  tittle  that  tends  to  such  an  in- 
finite liberty,  is  a  mistake  which  I  have  ever  disclaimed 
and  abhorred.  To  prevent  such  mistakes,  I  at  present 
shall  only  propose  this  case.  There  goes  many  a  ship 
to  sea,  with  many  hundred  souls  in  one  ship,  whose  wea* 
and  woe  is  common,  and  is  a  true  picture  of  a  common- 
wealth, or  a  human  combination  or  society.  It  hath 
fallen  out  sometimes  that  both  Papists  and  Protestants, 
Jews  and  Turks,  may  be  embarked  into  one  ship.  Upon 
which  supposal  I  affirm  that  all  the  liberty  of  con- 
science that  ever  I  pleaded  for  turns  upon  these  two 
hinges — that  none  of  the  Papists,  Protestants,  Jews,  or 
Turks  be  forced  to  come  to  the  ship's  prayers  or  wor- 
ship, nor  compelled  from  their  own  particular  prayers  or 
worship,  if  they  practice  any.  I  never  denied  that,  not- 
withstanding this  liberty,  the  commander  of  this  ship 
ought  to  command  the  ship's  course  ;  yea,  and  also  com- 
mand that  justice,  peace,  and  sobriety  be  kept  and  prac- 
ticed both  among  the  seamen  and  all  the  passengers.  If 
any  of  the  seamen  refuse  to  perform  their  service,  or 
passengers  to  pay  their  freight ;  if  any  refuse  to  help  in 


398  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  person  or  purse  toward  the  common  charges  or  defense , 
'  if  any  refuse  to  obey  the  common  laws  or  orders  of  the 
1653.  ship  concerning  their  common  peace  and  preservation ; 
if  any  shall  mutiny  and  rise  up  against  the  commanders 
and  officers ;  if  any  should  preach  or  write  that  there 
ought  to  be  no  commanders  nor  officers,  because  all  are 
equal  in  Christ,  therefore  no  masters  nor  officers,  no  laws 
nor  orders,  no  corrections  nor  punishments,  I  say  I 
never  denied  but  in  such  cases,  whatever  is  pretended, 
the  commander  or  commanders  may  judge,  resist,  com- 
pel, and  punish  such  transgressors  according  to  their  de- 
serts and  merits." 

The  administration  of  the  colony  thus  again  reorgan- 
ized, Williams  was  rechosen  governor  at  the  next  gen- 

1655.  eral  election.     A  letter  having  also  arrived  from  Crom- 
May  22-  well  confirming  the  government  as  now  established,  Cod- 

1656.  dington  presently  made  his  appearance  at   a  General 
— h  14.  Court,  and  freely  submitted  "  with  all  his  heart ;"   and 

he  and  Dyer,  who  had  been  engaged  in  violent  lawsuits 
and  contentions,  signed  a  paper  signifying  their  submis- 
sion to  an  award  of  five  referees,  of  whom  Gorton  was 
one,  for  the  settiament  of  all  disputes  between  them. 

The  only  difficulties  that  now  remained  were  those 
growing  out  of  the  opposition  of  William  Arnold  and  one 
or  two  others,  who  had  submitted  to  Massachusetts,  and 
out  of  the  depredations  of  the  two  sachems  of  Shawomet, 
vassals  also  of  that  colony.  On  this  subject  Williams 
1655.  addressed  a  letter  to  Governor  Endicott,  reminding  him 
;ov.  15.  Of  tne  sui£  by  Gorton's  company  pending  before  his  high- 
ness and  the  lords  of  the  council  for  £ 2 000  damages,  and 
complaining  of  the  conduct  of  the  English  and  Indian 
adherents  of  Massachusetts,  and  also  of  a  law  of  non- 
intercourse,  by  which  it  was  forbidden  to  sell  to  Rhode 
Island  arms  and  ammunition  even  "  in  this  bloody  and 


NEW  ENGLAND   DURING  THE  COMMONWEALTH.    399 

massacring  time" — an  allusion  to  the  internal  wars  then  CHAPTER 

pending  between  the  neighboring  Indians.      The  letter 

closed  with  intimating  an  appeal  to  his  highness  and  his  1656. 
council.      This  intimation  was  not  without  its  effect. 
The  magistrates  of  Massachusetts  stood  in  some  awe  of 
Cromwell,  to  whom  they  had  lately  forwarded  a  con- 
gratulatory address.     "Williams  was  presently  invited  to  May  12. 
Boston,  where  he  presented  a  memorial  to  the  General 
Court,  reiterating  his  former  complaints,  as  to  which  some 
redress  was  now  granted. 

Attention,  indeed,  in  Massachusetts,  was  speedily  ab- 
sorbed by  a  new  influx  of  heretics,  in  comparison  with  Sept. 
which,  Antinomians,  Anabaptists,  Familists,  and  Seek- 
ers sunk  into  insignificance.  At  the  same  meeting  of 
the  Commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies  at  which 
Massachusetts  had  complained  of  the  neglect  of  Plym- 
outh in  providing  support  for  her  ministers,  information 
was  given  to  that  board  of  the  arrival  in  Massachusetts 
of  "  several  persons  professing  themselves  Quakers,  fit 
instruments  to  propagate  the  kingdom  of  Satan,"  and 
the  commissioners  were  earnestly  entreated  to  recom- 
mend to  all  the  colonies  "  some  general  rules  to  prevent 
the  coming  in  among  us  from  foreign  places  of  such  no- 
torious heretics."  The  immediate  occasion  of  this  alarm 
was  the  arrival  at  Boston  of  two  women  from  Barbadoes, 
whose  names,  "  after  the  flesh,"  were  Mary  Fisher  and 
Ann  Austin.  Their  trunks  had  been  examined,  and 
their  books  burned  by  the  common  hangman.  The 
women  themselves  had  been  thrown  into  prison,  and  their 
persons  searched  for  "  signs"  of  witchcraft. 

The  popular  faith  in  witchcraft  had  just  been  grati- 
fied by  the  execution  of  no  less  a  person  than  Anne 
Hibbins,  sister  of  Bellingham,  and  widow  of  a  magis- 
trate, the  late  colleague  of  Peters  and  Welde  in  the 


400  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  agency  of  the  colony.  This  unfortunate  woman's  tem- 
'  per  had  been  soured — she  had  been,  perhaps,  a  little  craz- 
1656.  ed — by  the  unsuccessful  result  of  an  expensive  and  tedi- 
ous lawsuit.  The  story  circulated  that  she  was  a  witch, 
and  at  length  a  formal  accusation  was  brought  against 
her.  With  the  suspicious  temper  so  natural  to  persons 
in  her  state  of  mind,  she  had  unluckily  conjectured  that 
two  persons  whom  she  saw  talking  together  in  the  street 
must  be  talking  about  her,  and  chiefly  on  that  fact  the 
jury  found  her  guilty.  The  magistrates  refused  to  ac- 
cept the  verdict,  and  the  case  went  up  to  the  General 
Court.  The  deputies  were  resolved  that  the  culprit's 
high  connections  should  not  save  her,  and  even  those 
magistrates  and  ministers  who  thought  her  innocent  did 
not  dare  to  encounter  the  popular  prejudice.  So  she  was 
condemned  and  executed,  as  Norton  jocosely  remarked, 
"  only  for  having  more  wit  than  her  neighbors." 

No  "  devil's  teats"  nor  other  signs  of  witchcraft  could  be 
found  on  the  Quaker  women.  Nothing  could  be  charg- 
ed against  them  except  heresy,  of  which,  after  five  weeks' 
imprisonment,  they  were  found  guilty,  and,  in  conformity 
to  the  law,  were  "  thrust  out  of  the  jurisdiction."  Nine 
other  Quakers,  men  and  women,  who  arrived  soon  after 
from  London,  experienced  similar  treatment.  Thus  ex- 
pelled from  Massachusetts,  Mary  Fisher  turned  her  at- 
tention to  what  she  esteemed  the  next  most  pressing  field 
of  labor,  and  set  off  accordingly  for  Constantinople.  The 
Mohammedans  find  it  difficult  to  distinguish  between  in- 
spiration and  insanity,  and  regard  with  veneration  and 
awe  all  persons  of  exalted  imagination.  The  Quakei 
prophetess  passed  unharmed  through  the  Turkish  armies, 
and  was  even  admitted  to  an  audience  of  the  grand  vizier. 
A  friendly  letter  was  sent  by  Gorton  to  the  imprisoned 
Quakers,  to  which  they  replied,  and  he  rejoined  in  a  sec- 


NEW    ENGLAND  DURING   THE   COMMONWEALTH.    49  \ 
ond  letter.      He  concurred  with  them  as  to  the  doctrine  CHAPTER 

XII 

of  inner  light,  but  not  as  to  non-resistance.     His  letters,          '' 
however,  were  consolatory,  not  controversial.  1656. 

The  Quaker  sect,  recently  sprung  up  in  England  un- 
der the  preaching  of  George  Fox,  was  one  among  many 
other  results  of  that  violent  fermentation  of  opinions 
among  part  of  the  English  Puritans,  which  Cromwell,  to 
the  horror  of  the  conservative  Presbyterians,  allowed  to 
go  on  almost  unchecked.  It  was,  in  fact,  by  the  aid  of 
the  progressive  section  of  the  Puritans  known  as  Inde- 
pendents, small  in  number,  but  full  of  ardor  and  ener- 
gy, champions  of  spiritual  freedom  against  Presbyterian 
and  Congregational  as  well  as  prelatic  supervision,  that 
Cromwell  had  raised  himself  to  the  head  of  affairs.  Of 
all  these  Independent  sects,  none  proceeded  so  far  as  the 
Quakers  in  throwing  off  the  yoke  of  authority.  The 
Romish  and  the  English  churches  were  founded  on  ec- 
clesiastical tradition  ;  as  a  part  of  which,  the  Bible  was 
included.  The  Puritans,  setting  aside  all  other  tradi- 
tions, professed  to  hold  to  the  Bible  alone,  and  in  this 
point  Presbyterians,  Congregationalists,  and  Baptists 
agreed.  The  Quakers  alleged  that  even  the  Bible  was 
but  a  mere  dead  letter  unless  illumined  by  what  they 
called  the  "  inner  light" — a  divine  spark  more  or  less 
bright,  innate  in  every  human  bosom — the  only  ultimate 
and  unerring  test  of  truth  and  right.  This,  indeed,  was 
but  one  form  of  asserting  that  privilege  of  private  judg- 
ment which  all  the  Protestant  churches  zealously  main- 
tained as  against  Rome  and  the  pope,  but  which  not  one 
of  them  would  allow  as  against  themselves — a  right  which 
Roger  Williams,  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and  Samuel  Gorton 
had  so  unsuccessfully  attempted  to  exercise  in  Massa- 
chusetts. But  this  "  inner  light,"  on  which  the  Quak- 
ers relied,  and  to  which,  when  it  prompted  them  to  speak 
I.  Cc 


402  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  or  act,  they  gave  the  nama  of  "  the  Spirit,"  was  not,  in 

their  idea  of  it,  man's  natural  reason,  which  they  held 

1656.  in  as  great  contempt  as  religious  enthusiasts  commonly 
do.  They  described  it  rather  as  a  sort  of  inspiration,  a 
divine  illumination  superior  to  reason,  and  often  appar- 
ently in  contradiction  to  it.  It  was,  in  fact,  but  a  whim- 
sical, superstitious,  ill-informed,  passionate,  narrow,  ill- 
regulated  reason,  right,  no  doubt,  upon  many  important 
points,  but  often  exaggerated ;  unwilling  or  unable  to 
justify  itself  by  argument  or  fact,  and  hastening  to  cut 
short  all  objections  and  to  make  a  deep  impression  on  the 
imagination  by  claiming  for  itself  somewhat  of  intuition 
and  divinity. 

Under  the  guidance  of  this  inner  light  the  Quakers 
denounced  war,  of  which,  after  a  long  interval,  the  Brit- 
ish Isles  had  recently  tasted  all  the  horrors — horrors 
which  had  driven  even  the  philosophic  Hobbes  to  advo- 
cate passive  obedience  as  a  means  of  peace.  Relying 
upon  certain  texts  of  the  New  Testament,  they  not  only 
refused  to  bear  arms,  but  even  held  to  the  doctrine  of 
pure  non-resistance,  thus  placing  themselves  in  direct 
and  striking  opposition  to  the  great  body  of  the  Puri- 
tans, who  relied  upon  "  the  sword  of  the  Lord'7  as  one 
grand  means  of  religious  reformation — a  means,  how- 
ever, of  which  Cromwell's  relentless  slaughter  of  the 
Irish  Catholics  had  lately  given  a  most  cruel  specimen, 
such  as  might  well  raise  doubts  in  every  mind  humanely 
disposed. 

The  Quakers  denounced  persecution  for  religious  opin- 
ions, recognizing  in  all  some  mixture  of  truth.  They 
went  upon  this  point  far  beyond  the  rest  of  the  Independ- 
ents, who  claimed,  indeed,  a  certain  liberty  of  opinion  for 
"  the  saints,"  but  without  being  willing  to  extend  it,  as 
the  Quakers  would,  to  Catholics  and  Prelatists,  Socinians 


NEW  ENGLAND   DURING   THE   COMMONWEALTH.  4Q3 

and  infidels.     Without  absolutely  objecting  to  political  CHAPTER 

authority,  for  which,  as  an  ordinance  of  God,  they  pro- 

fessed,  indeed,  a  certain  reverence,  the  Quakers  de-  1656. 
nounced,  as  a  sort  of  idolatry,  the  slavish  homage  de- 
manded of  their  subjects  by  rulers.  They  esteemed  it 
an  encroachment  on  the  worship  due  only  to  the  Supreme 
Being ;  and,  in  testimony  of  their  opinions  upon  this 
point,  when  brought  before  magistrates,  they  resolutely 
refused  to  take  off  their  hats.  They  held  to  the  spirit- 
ual equality  of  the  sexes,  and  that  women,  being  there- 
unto moved  by  the  Spirit,  had  as  much  right  to  preach 
and  prophecy  as  men.  They  condemned  in  the  severest 
terms  all  ordained  and  paid  priesthoods — a  point  in  which 
the  Anabaptists  warmly  concurred  with  them.  They 
regarded  the  Christian  sacraments  as  of  no  more  per- 
manent obligation  than  the  Jewish  ceremonial  law ;  they 
rejected,  indeed,  all  religious  forms  except  a  few  of  tho 
very  simplest.  Relying  on  a  literal  interpretation  of 
Scripture — a  sort  of  interpretation  on  which  they  zeal- 
ously insisted  whenever  the  literal  sense  coincided  with 
their  views — -they  refused  to  take  oaths;  and  their  con- 
duct in  this  respect  struck  a  decisive  and  alarming  blow 
at  a  means  deemed  by  rulers  of  the  utmost  importance 
for  pressing  the  religious  sentiment  into  the  service  of 
government.  The  Puritans  derived  their  system  of 
theology,  politics,  and  morals  mainly  from  the  Old  Test- 
ament, with  Paul's  Epistles  for  a  commentary ;  the  Quak- 
ers drew  theirs  chiefly  from  the  Gospels,  particularly  that 
according  to  John,  in  which  they  found  a  symbolizing 
style  of  expression,  full  of  strong  but  vague  metaphors, 
peculiarly  suited  to  their  state  of  mind.  They  had  no 
sympathy  for,  they  set  themselves,  indeed,  in  direct  op- 
position to,  that  fierce,  bigoted,  domineering  disposition 
which  the  mass  of  the  Puritans  had  imbibed  from  the 


404  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  Old  Testament,  but  they  fully  participated  in  that  spirit 
of  asceticism  by  which,  indeed,  all  enthusiastic  sects 
1656.  have  ever  been  distinguished,  and  which  naturally  re- 
sults from  the  predominance  of  the  imagination,  or  the 
spiritual,  over  the  senses,  or  the  carnal.  Hence,  in  com- 
mon with  the  rest  of  the  Puritans,  they  zealously  con- 
demned the  vanity  of  all  personal  adornments  ;  the^ 
regarded  even  the  perception  of  beauty  as  a  mark  of 
worldly-mindedness  ;  and  poetry,  music,  and  the  fine  arts 
as  dangerous  triflings,  provocatives  of  sin.  Laying  aside 
all  the  flattery  and  falsehoods  of  politeness,  they  sought 
to  bring  back  language  to  the  simplicity  of  "  yea"  and 
"  nay,"  "  thee"  and  "  thou."  They  denounced  all  those 
ceremonies  introduced  into  social  intercourse  by  pride, 
vanity,  and  the  distinction  of  ranks.  Rejecting  all  other 
prefixes,  they  addressed  all  by  the  plain  title  of"  Friend," 
by  which  also  they  designated  themselves.  The  Quak- 
ers might  be  regarded  as  representing  that  branch  of  the 
primitive  Christians  who  esteemed  Christianity  an  en- 
tirely new  dispensation,  world  wide  in  its  objects  ;  while 
the  Puritans  represented  those  Judaizing  Christians  who 
could  not  get  rid  of  the  idea  of  a  peculiar  chosen  people, 
to  wit,  themselves. 

The  converts  to  this  new  sect,  wrought  up  to  the 
highest  pitch  of  enthusiasm,  taking  for  their  example  the 
prophets  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  apostles  of  the 
New,  went  about  under  a  divine  impulse,  or  illumination, 
as  they  supposed,  vehemently  denouncing  existing  reli- 
gious establishments  and  practices  ;  and,  often  setting  at 
defiance  all  received  rules  of  subordination  and  decorum. 
They  resorted  to  a  more  modern  method  of  propagating 
their  doctrines,  in  the  distribution  of  printed  tracts — a 
method  which  the  existing  ferment  of  opinions  in  England 
had  then  lately  first  brought  into  fashion. 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE   COMMONWEALTH.   4Q5 

The  appearance  of  these  fervid  enthusiasts  in  New  En-  CHAPTER 

gland  threw  the  theocracy  into  the  greatest  alarm.     The 

existing  laws  of  Massachusetts  against  heretics  were  not  1656. 
thought  sufficient  for  the  occasion.  A  special  law  was 
presently  enacted,  in  the  preamble  of  which  the  Quakers  Oct. 
were  denounced  as  '"  a  cursed  sect  of  heretics  lately  ris- 
en in  the  world."  To  bring  a  "  known  Quaker"  into 
the  colony  was  made  punishable  by  this  law  with  a  fine 
of  ;£lOO,  besides  bonds  to  carry  him  back  again,  or, 
in  default  thereof,  imprisonment.  The  Quaker  him- 
self was  to  be  whipped  twenty  stripes,  sent  to  the  house 
of  correction,  and  kept  at  hard  labor  until  transported. 
The  importation  or  possession  of  Quaker  books  was 
strictly  prohibited ;  all  such  books  were  to  be  brought 
in  to  the  nearest  magistrate  to  be  burned.  Defending 
Quaker  opinions  was  punishable  with  fine,  and,  on  the 
third  offense,  with  the  house  of  correction  and  banish- 
ment. Even  these  enactments  did  not  suffice.  By  a 
law  of  the  next  year,  the  fines  before  imposed  were  in-  1657. 
creased  \  every  hour's  entertainment  of  a  known  Quaker  ^3- 
was  subjected  to  a  fine  of  forty  shillings  ;  every  male 
Quaker,  besides  former  penalties,  was  to  lose  one  ear  on 
the  first  conviction,  and  on  a  second  the  other  ;  and  both 
males  and  females,  on  the  third  conviction,  were  to  have 
their  tongues  bored  through  with  a  red-hot  iron.  Plym- 
outh, Connecticut,  and  New  Haven,  on  the  recommend- 
ation of  the  Commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies, 
adopted  similar  laws. 

An  urgent  letter  was  addressed  to  Rhode  Island,  where  Sept.  25. 
Benedict  Arnold  had  succeeded  Williams  as  president, 
protesting  against  the  toleration  allowed  to  Quakers,  and 
intimating  that  refusal  to  conform  to  the  policy  of  the 
United  Colonies  would  be  resented  by  a  total  non-inter- 
course Coddington  and  other  principal  men  afterward 


406  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  joined  the  Quakers ;  but,  as  yet,  little  sympathy  was 

felt  in  Rhode  Island  for  their  peculiar  opinions.      The 

1657.  people  of  that  colony  adhered,  nevertheless,  with  admi- 
rable consistency,  to  their  great  principle  of  religious  lib- 
Oct.  13.  erty.  In  reply  to  a  second  application  on  the  subject, 
they  stated  that,  "  to  those  places  where  these  people  are 
most  of  all  suffered  to  declare  themselves  freely,  and  are 
openly  opposed  by  arguments  in  discourse,  they  least  de- 
sire to  come,  so  that  they  begin  to  loathe  this  place,  for 
that  they  are  not  opposed  by  the  civil  authority,  but  with 
all  patience  and  meekness  are  suffered  to  say  over  their 
pretended  revelations ;  nor  are  they  like  or  able  to  gain 
many  here  to  their  way."  "  Surely,"  adds  this  very  sens- 
ible letter,  "they  delight  to  be  persecuted,  and  are  like 
to  gain  more  adherents  by  the  conceit  of  their  patient 
sufferings  than  by  consent  to  their  pernicious  sayings." 
But  neither  good  advice  nor  good  example  made  any  im- 
pression on  the  United  Colonies.  A  new  law  of  Massa- 
chusetts, imposing  fines  on  all  who  attended  Quaker 
meetings,  or  spoke  at  them,  did  but  increase  the  dispo- 
sition to  speak  and  to  hear.  In  spite  of  whippings, 
brandings,  and  cropping  of  ears,  the  banished  Quakers 
persisted  in  returning.  They  flocked,  indeed,  to  Massa- 
chusetts, and  especially  to  Boston,  as  to  places  possessed 
with  the  spirit  of  intolerance,  and  therefore  the  more  in 
need  of  their  presence  and  preaching. 

While  thus  beset  by  enemies  from  without,  the  theoc- 
racy experienced  also  some  opposition  from  within. 
Though  constantly  stretching  its  power,  it  did  not  take 
a  single  step  in  advance  without  encountering  a  vigor- 
ous resistance,  of  which  a  new  instance  was  now  ex- 
hibited. Cobbett,  minister  of  Lynn,  the  persecutor  of 
Clarke  and  Holmes,  having  had  his  salary  reduced  to 
d£30  a  year — in  consequence  of  which,  as  we  are  told,  the 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE   COMMONWEALTH.   4Q7 

town  suffered  a  judgment  by  a  loss  of  cattle  destroyed  by  CHAPTER 
a  sudden  disease  to  the  value  of  £300 — had  removed  to 
Ipswich,  which  town  voted  to  give  him  d£lOO  to  buy  or  1657, 
build  a  house — that  sum  to  be  levied  "  on  all  the  inhab- 
"tants."  Some  of  the  inhabitants  resisted,  and,  distress 
being  made,  George  Giddings,  whose  pewter  platters 
had  been  seized  to  answer  the  tax,  brought  an  action  for 
damages  before  Samuel  Symonds,  one  of  the  magistrates. 
Symonds  sustained  the  action  on  the  ground  "  that  it  is 
against  a  fundamental  law  of  nature  to  be  compelled  to 
pay  that  which  others  do  give."  The  case  was  carried 
by  appeal  first  to  the  County  Court,  and  then  to  the  Gen- 
eral Court.  The  deputies  were  disposed  to  sustain  Sy- 
monds's  decision  ;  but,  through  the  influence  of  the  mag- 
istrates, it  was  finally  carried  the  other  way,  and  the  right 
of  the  town  to  impose  the  tax  was  sustained. 

In  hopes  to  put  a  stop  to  the  annoyance  of  returning 
Quakers,  the  Commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies  final-  1658. 
ly  recommended  that  such  as  returned   a   second  time     pt-  23< 
should  suffer  death.      The  name  of  the  younger  Win- 
throp,  who  sat  as  one  of  the  commissioners  for  Connecti- 
cut, a  man  of  much  more  tolerant  spirit  than  his  father, 
is  affixed  to  this  vote ;  not,  however,  without  the  follow- 
ing qualification:   " Looking  at  it  as  a  quere,  and  not  as 
an  act,  I  subscribe."     But  it  did  not  long  remain  a  quere. 
In  spite  of  a  vigorous  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  depu-     Oct 
ties,  a  law  for  the  capital  punishment  of  returned  Quak- 
ers was  presently  enacted  in  Massachusetts,  and  Marma-  1659. 
duke  Stephenson  of  Yorkshire,  William  Robinson  of  Lon-  Oct<  2( 
don,  and  Mary  Dyer  of  Newport,  were  soon  found  guilty 
under  it.     Mary  Dyer,  formerly  a  conspicuous  disciple  of 
Mrs.  Hutchinson,  widow  of  William  Dyer,  late  recorder 
of  Providence   Plantation,   was   reprieved   on  the  scaf-  Oct.  27. 
fold,  after  witnessing  the  execution  of  her  two  compan- 


408  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  ions,  and  set  at  liberty  on  petition  of  her  son,  on  condi- 
tion  of  leaving  the  colony  in  forty-eight  hours.      The 

1659.  magistrates  vindicated  the  execution  of  the  other  two  in 
a  long  Declaration,  in  which  they  dwelt  with  emphasis 
on  the  case  of  Mary  Dyer,  as  proof  that  they  sought  "not 
the  death,  but  the  absence  of  the  Quakers."      There  was 
this  peculiarity,  indeed,  in  all  the  New  England  perse- 
cutions, with  the  single  exception  of  Gorton's  case,  that 
heretics  were  persecuted,  not  so  much  as  enemies  of  God, 
whom  it  was  fit  and  meritorious  to  punish,  but  rather 
as  intruders,  whom  it  was  desirable  to  get  rid  of,  or  at 
least  to  silence.     Mary  Dyer,  however,  did  not  escape. 
Impelled  by  "the  Spirit,"  she  presently  returned  again 
to  "  the  bloody  town  of  Boston,"  where,  like  her  fellow- 

1660.  convicts,  she  underwent  death  by  hanging.     The  for- 
June  1.  titude,  and  even  triumphant  joy  with  which  these  vic- 
tims met  their  fate,  the  sympathy  which  their  execution 
excited,  and  the  readiness  with  which  their  places  were 
supplied  by  others,  prepared  and  even  anxious  for  a  like 
extremity,  alarmed  and  intimidated  the  magistrates.    Not 
only  the  doubtful  effect  in  the  colony,  but  the  late  revo- 
lution in  England,  and  the  uncertainty  how  these  pro- 
ceedings might  be  regarded  there,  gave  additional  reason 
to  hesitate.      Several  other  returned  Quakers  were  sen- 
tenced to  death,  but  only  one  more  execution,  that  of 

1661.  William  Leddra,  took  place.      Several  others,  condemned 
March  H.  |0  death,  were  pardoned  and  discharged  upon  acknowledg- 
ment of  their  error. 

To  prevent,  as  far  as  possible,  the  multiplication  of 
these  capital  cases,  the  General  Court,  "  willing  to  try 
all  means,  with  as  much  lenity  as  may  consist  with  safe- 
May,  ty,"  provided  by  a  new  law  that  any  vagabond  coming 
into  the  jurisdiction  should  be  arrested  wherever  found, 
and  carried  before  the  nearest  magistrate,  and,  being 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  COMMONWEALTH.  4Q9 

proved,   by  confession   or   otherwise,  to  be   a   Quaker,  CHAPTER 
should  be  delivered,  under  the  magistrate's  warrant,  to  . 

the  constable  of  the  town,  "to  be  stripped  naked  from  1661. 
the  middle  upward,  and  tied  to  a  cart's  tail  and  whipped 
through  the  town,  and  thence  be  immediately  conveyed 
to  the  constable  of  the  next  town  toward  the  borders 
of  our  jurisdiction,  and  so  from  constable  to  constable, 
to  any  the  outermost  town,"  and  so  to  be  whipped  over 
the  border.  This  process,  in  case  of  return,  was  to  be 
twice  repeated.  Those  who  came  in  a  fourth  time  were 
to  be  arrested  and  committed  to  the  house  of  correction 
for  trial  at  the  next  court ;  and  such  as  the  court  did  not 
judge  meet  to  release  were  to  be  branded  on  the  left 
shoulder  with  the  letter  R.,  severely  whipped,  and  then 
flogged,  as  before,  out  of  the  jurisdiction.  If,  after  all 
this  discipline,  any  persisted  in  returning,  they  were  to  be 
proceeded  against  "as  incorrigible  rogues  and  enemies  of 
the  common  peace,"  under  the  law  of  banishment,  with 
pain  of  death  if  they  returned.  Those  residents  who  be- 
came Quakers  were  first  to  be  thrust  out  of  the  juris- 
diction, and,  if  they  came  back,  were  to  be  proceeded 
against  as  vagabond  Quakers. 

Meanwhile  the  philanthropic  Eliot  was  pursuing  his 
missionary  labors,  for  the  support  of  which  the  society  in 
England  now  annually  remitted  a  sum  equivalent  to  about 
$3000.  Out  of  this  fund  upward  of  twenty  teachers, 
several  of  them  Indians,  received  salaries  of  from  $50  to 
$250  each,  and  a  number  of  Indian  youth  were  sup- 
ported and  educated.  No  impression  could  be  made  on 
the  Wampanoags  and  Narragansets,  notwithstanding  the 
threats  of  the  praying  Indians,  recorded  by  Williams,  that 
unless  they  submitted  to  the  Gospel,  Massachusetts 
"would  destroy  them  by  war."  Even  Uncas,  the  tool 
and  favored  ally  of  the  colonists,  was  inflexible  on  this 


410  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  point,  as  were  most  of  the  sachems,  and  especially  tho 

pow-wows  or  priests.     Eliot  had  compiled  a  form  of  gov- 

1660.  ernment  for  his  converts,  based  on  the  institutions  of 
Moses ;  but  the  Commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies, 
who  had  the  general  oversight  of  the  missions,  and  the 
administration  of  the  funds,  advised  him  to  be  cautious 
how  he  interfered  too  much  with  the  authority  of  the 
chiefs.  Not  content  with  Christianizing,  Eliot  wished 
also  to  civilize  the  Indians;  indeed,  he  held  civilization 
essential  to  Christianity.  But  he  found  it  much  easier 
to  imbue  his  converts  with  his  theological  ideas  than  to 
habituate  them  to  settled  life  and  regular  labor.  Wine 
and  rum,  freely  imported  from  Madeira  and  the  West  In- 
dies, proved  a  sore  temptation  to  the  converts,  unprinci- 
pled traders  violating  the  laws  which  forbade  selling  to 
the  Indians.  Difficulties  still  more  insurmountable  were 
encountered  in  the  violent  prejudices  of  caste  which  pre- 
vailed in  New  England.  The  first  emigrants  seem  to 
have  entertained  hopes  of  incorporating  the  Indians  into 
1633.  their  commonwealth.  A  very  early  law  had  provided  for 
the  assignment  of  lands  to  such  Indians  as  might  become 
civilized,  and  for  organizing  them  into  townships.  But 
the  theocratic  section  of  the  Puritans  were  not  the  men 
for  a  work  requiring  an  enlarged  benevolence,  a  patient 
forbearance,  and  a  respect  for  human  nature  which  formed 
no  part  of  their  creed.  In  spite  of  Eliot's  attempts  to 
trace  the  Indians  from  the  ten  lost  tribes  of  Israel,  they 
were  despised  as  savages  by  the  Puritan  colonists,  and 
hated  as  heathen.  Familiar  with  all  the  stern  details 
of  the  Old  Testament  history,  the  colonists  compared 
themselves  to  the  Israelites,  the  natives  to  the  Canaan- 
ites,  and  New  England  to  the  promised  land.  It  was 
even  suggested  that  the  Indians  might  be  naturally  as 
well  as  figuratively  the  children  of  the  devil,  whose  de- 


NEW  ENGLAND  DURING  THE  COMMONWEALTH.    4H 

vout  worshipers  they  were  believed  to  be,  and  his  willing  CHAPTER 

pupils  in  sorcery  and  witchcraft — mere  names  to  us,  but 

to  our  fathers  horrible  and  most  detestable  realities.  1660. 

The  colonists,  however,  did  not  act  up  to  their  model. 
The  Pequod  territory  and  some  other  tracts  were  claimed 
by  conquest,  but  in  general  the  Indian  title  was  pur- 
chased. The  prices  appear  small ;  a  coat  or  a  few  hatch- 
ets paid  for  a  township.  The  value,  in  fact,  was  very 
little ;  but  it  may  well  be  questioned  how  far  the  chiefs 
from  whom  these  purchases  were  made  had  any  author- 
ity to  alienate  the  lands  of  their  tribe,  or  how  far  they 
understood  to  what  extent  they  were  parting  with  their 
title.  That  justice  toward  the  natives,  upon  which  the 
colonists  of  New  England  prided  themselves,  was  con- 
scientious, indeed,  but  narrow  and  very  vindictive ; 
alike  ignorant  and  careless  of  the  views,  feelings,  and 
usages  of  the  Indians ;  holding  them  responsible  to  a 
strict  and  austere  code,  little  consonant,  on  many  points, 
to  their  habits  or  ideas ;  and  ascribing  to  the  chiefs  an 
extent  of  authority,  and  a  control  over  their  people,  which 
they  did  not  by  any  means  actually  possess.  In  all  their 
intercourse  with  the  Indians,  they  insisted  strenuously, 
as  in  the  instructions  to  Gibbons  when  marching  against 
the  Narragansets,  "  on  the  distance  which  is  to  be  ob- 
served betwixt  Christians  and  barbarians,  as  well  in  war 
as  in  other  negotiations." 

The  feelings  of  hatred,  distrust,  and  contempt  with 
which  the  natives  were  generally  regarded,  extended  even 
to  the  "praying  Indians,"  as  the  converts  were  called. 
They  were  suspected  by  the  mass  of  the  colonists  of  being 
secretly  in  league  with  the  Dutch,  and  parties  to  the 
supposed  hostile  designs  of  the  Narragansets.  To  judge 
by  their  cautions  to  Eliot,  the  Commissioners  for  the 
United  Colonies,  who  administered  the  mission  fund,  were 


412  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  very  strongly  suspicious  lest  the  converts  "  should  only 
-  follow  Christ  for  loaves  and  outward  advantage."     It  was 

1660.  only  by  steady  perseverance  and  oft-repeated  importu- 
nities that  Eliot  so  far  gained  upon  prevailing  prejudice 
as  to  obtain  liberty  to  organize  a  church  at  his  Indian 
town  of  Natick.      The  missions  received  little,  if  any  aid 
from  the  colonists,  being  sustained  by  the  contributions 
from  England.     Out  of  that  fund  were  printed  Eliot's 
Indian  Grammar,  Psalm  Book,  and  Catechism,  followed 
first  by  the  New  Testament,  and  presently  by  the  Old, 
translated  by  that  indefatigable  laborer  into  the  Mas- 
sachusetts dialect,  and  printed  at  Cambridge — the  first 

1661.  American  edition  of  the  Bible.     Out  of  the  same  fund, 
1663.  also,  a  small  building  was  erected  at  the  college  for  the 

special  use  of  Indian  students.  Many  Indians  were 
taught  to  read  and  write,  and  one  graduated  at  the  col- 
lege. Other  villages  besides  that  at  Natick,  and  other 
churches,  were  formed.  But  these  converted  and  civil- 
ized Indians  were  still  treated  in  every  respect  as  a  dis- 
tinct and  an  inferior  race,  restricted  to  villages  of  their 
own,  and  cut  off  by  opinion  as  well  as  by  law  from  in- 
termarriage and  intermixture  with  the  whites.  What 
wonder,  in  spite  of  all  Eliot's  zeal  and  devotedness,  that 
this  scheme  for  civilizing  and  Christianizing  the  Indians 
proved  in  the  end  an  almost  total  failure  ? 


NEW  SWEDEN.  413 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

NEW  SWEDEN.    PROGRESS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.    ITS 
CONQUEST  BY  THE  ENGLISH. 


T  was  not  against  English  encroachments  alone  that  CHAPTER 


I 

the  Dutch  of  New  Netherland  had  to  contend.  Ussellinx, 
the  original  projector  of  the  Dutch  West  India  Company, 
dissatisfied,  as  often  happens,  at  his  treatment  by  those 
who  had  availed  themselves  of  his  projects,  had  looked 
round  for  a  new  patron.  To  Gustavus  Adolphus,  king 
of  Sweden,  greatly  distinguished  a  few  years  afterward 
by  his  victories  in  Germany,  which  saved  the  Protest- 
ants of  that  empire  from  total  ruin  and  raised  Sweden  to 
a  high  pitch  of  temporary  importance,  Ussellinx  proposed  1626. 
a  plan  for  a  Swedish  trading  company.  This  plan  the  king 
inclined  to  favor,  and  a  charter  for  such  a  company  was 
presently  issued.  But  the  scheme  was  cut  short  by  the  1630. 
breaking  out  of  the  German  war,  and  the  untimely  death  1633. 
of  the  hero  of  the  north  at  the  victorious  battle  of  Lutzen. 
The  plan  of  Ussellinx,  or  a  portion  of  it,  was  revived  by 
Peter  Minuet,  whom  we  have  formerly  seen  director  of 
New  Netherland,  and  who,  after  his  recall  from  that  gov- 
ernment, went  to  Sweden,  where  he  was  patronized  by 
the  celebrated  Oxenstiern,  minister  of  Queen  Christina, 
the  daughter  of  Gustavus.  Furnished,  by  his  assistance, 
with  an  armed  vessel,  the  Key  of  Calmar,  a  tender  called 
the  Griffin,  and  fifty  men,  Minuet  set  sail  to  establish  a 
Swedish  settlement  and  trading  post  in  America.  He 
touched  at  Jamestown,  in  Virginia,  took  in  wood  and  1638. 
water,  and,  during  a  stay  of  ten  days,  endeavored  to  pur-  March 


414  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  chase  a  cargo  of  tobacco,  but  refused  to  show  his  papers, 

XIII 

or  to  state  the  object  of  his  voyage,  which  was  likely  to 
j[638.  conflict  with  the  claims  of  the  English  as  well  as  of  the 

April.  Dutch.  Afterward,  when  he  entered  the  Delaware,  he 
told  the  Dutch  traders  whom  he  met  that  his  visit  was 
only  temporary.  But  presently  he  bought  of  the  Indians 
a  tract  of  land  near  the  head  of  the  bay,  on  the  west 
shore,  where  he  built  a  fort  called  Christina^  in  honor 
of  the  Swedish  queen — first  commencement  of  the  colony 
of  NEW  SWEDEN. 

Kieft,  the  director  of  New  Netherland,  greatly  dissatis- 

June.  fied  at  this  intrusion,  maintained,  in  repeated  protests, 
that  the  whole  South  River  and  Bay,  as  Minuet  well 
knew,  belonged  to  the  Dutch,  having  been  in  their  pos- 
session many  years,  "  above  and  below  beset  with  their 

•  forts  and  sealed  with  their  blood."  But  to  these  pro- 
tests Minuet  paid  no  attention.  He  presently  sailed 
for  Sweden,  leaving  a  garrison  behind  of  twenty-four 
men,  well  supplied  with  arms,  goods,  and  provisions. 
Not  strong  enough  to  attack  the  Swedish  fort,  or  un- 
willing to  take  the  responsibility,  Kieft  referred  the  sub- 
ject to  the  company.  Sweden,  then  at  the  head  of  the 
Protestant  interest  in  Europe,  was  a  powerful  state,  col- 
lision with  which  was  not  to  be  risked,  and  the  company 
did  not  authorize  interference  with  the  Swedish  settlers. 
The  wiser  course  was  adopted  of  seeking  to  raise  the 
Dutch  province  from  a  mere  trading  station  to  a  prosper- 

Sept.  ous  colony.  A  proclamation  was  issued,  offering  free 
trade  to  New  Netherland  in  the  company's  ships,  and 
transportation  thither  to  all  wishing  to  go.  The  com- 
pany offered  to  provide  immigrants  with  lands,  houses, 
cattle,  and  farming  tools  at  an  annual  rent,  and  to  sup- 
ply them  with  clothes  and  provisions  on  credit,  at  an 
advance  of  fifty  per  cent,  on  the  prime  cost.  The  colo- 


PROGRESS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.      4^5 

ny  of  Pavonia  had  been  lately  purchased  up  for  $10,400,  CHAPTER 
so  that  of  the  three  large  patroonships  only  Rensselaers-        ..' 
vvyk  remained.     By  a  new  "  charter  of  .privileges  and  1640. 
exemptions,"  patroonships  were  limited  for  the  future  Jul?  17- 
to  four  miles  of  frontage  on  navigable  waters,  with  a 
depth  of  eight  miles.     Every  person  transporting  him- 
self and  five  others  to  the  colony  was  to  be  entitled  to 
two  hundred  acres  of  land  ;  and  such  villages  and  towns 
as  might  be  formed  were  to  have  magistrates  of  their 
own.      The  prohibition  against  making  cloths  was  re- 
pealed.    The  monopoly  of  the  Indian  trade  was  also  re- 
linquished, and,  in  place  of  it,  a  moderate  export  duty 
was  imposed ;    but   the  company  still  maintained   the 
monopoly  of  transportation  to  and  from  the  colony.     The 
Dutch  Reformed  Church  was  declared  the  established  re- 
ligion, to  be  alone  publicly  taught ;  and  the  company  un- 
dertook to  provide  preachers,  schoolmasters,  and  "  com- 
forters of  the  sick." 

Under  this  new  arrangement  a  number  of  immigrants 
came  from  Holland,  some  of  them  men  of  means.  Some 
English  indented  servants,  who  had  served  out  their 
time  in  Virginia,  settled  also  in  New  Netherland,  where 
they  carried  on  the  cultivation  of  tobacco.  Settlers  also 
still  came  in  from  New  England,  Anabaptists  and  others, 
driven  away  by  religious  intolerance.  Upon  all  these 
strangers  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  States- General  was 
imposed. 

Considerable  portions  of  the  western  end  of 'Long  Isl- 
and, the  only  valuable  and  fertile  part  of  it,  had  been 
already  purchased  of  the  Indians. '  The  whole  of  the  pres- 
ent Queen's  county  was  now  included  in  the  Dutch 
limits  ;  and,  in  addition  to  the  settlements  at  Wallabout 
and  Flatlands,  another  at  Breukelen  was  commenced.  1639. 
About  the  same  time,  Staten  Island,  except  the  bowery 


416  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  of  De  Vries,  was  granted  as  a  colony  or  patroonship  to 
'     Cornells  Melyn,  while  another  was  soon  after  erected 

1641.  on  the  main  land  extending  from  Newark  Bay,  which 
the  Dutch  called  Achter  Cul,  to  Tappan.      New  boweries 
were  established  in  every  direction.      Two  annual  fairs 
were  presently  set  up  at  New  Amsterdam,  the  one  for 
cattle,  and  the  other  for  hogs.     A  "  fine  stone  tavern" 
was  built ;   and,  through  the  zeal  of  Captain  De  Vries, 
who  contrasted  the  New  England  meeting-houses  with 
"  the  mean   barn"   at  New  Amsterdam,  a   new  stone 

1642.  church  was  erected  within  the  inclosure  of  the  fort,  part- 
ly at  the  company's  expense  and  partly  by  subscription. 

The  settlement  at  Red  Hill,  which  the  English  called 
New  Haven,  was  considered  by  the  Dutch  an  alarming 
encroachment.  The  traders  at  the  House  of  Good  Hope, 
on  the  Connecticut,  surrounded  by  the  English  settlers 
at  Hartford,  were  not  only  confined  to  a  plot  of  thirty 
acres,  beyond  which  they  were  not  permitted  to  culti- 
vate, but  by  a  variety  of  petty  annoyances  it  was  at- 
tempted to  drive  them  away  altogether.  Long  Island 
was  claimed  as  the  property  of  Lord  Stirling^  and  his 
agents  in  New  England  were  busy  in  making  grants. 
One  Farrett,  a  Scotsman,  an  agent  of  Stirling's,  pre- 
sented himself  at  New  Amsterdam,  claiming  the  whole 
of  Long  Island ;  but  he  was  driven  away,  followed  by 
1640.  the  jeers  of  the  mob.  A  party  from  Lynn,  in  Massa- 
chusetts, attempted  to  settle  toward  the  western  end  of 
that  island,  under  one  of  Farrett's  grants.  They  pulled 
down  the  Dutch  arms  from  a  tree  to  which  they  were 
affixed,  and  carved  an  "  unhandsome  face"  in  their  stead. 
Taken  prisoners  by  a  detachment  of  Dutch  soldiers  un- 
der Secretary  Van  Tienhoven,  these  insolent  intruders, 
after  apology  and  promise  to  leave  the  Dutch  territory, 
retired  to  the  east  end  of  Long  Island,  a  sandy  and  bar- 


PROGRESS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.      4^7 

ren  region,  where  they  founded  the  town  of  Southamp-  CHAPTER 

ton,  and  put  themselves  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Con- 

necticut.      Southold,  in  the  same  neighborhood,  settled  1641. 
by  another  Puritan  party,  associated  itself  with  the  col- 
ony of  New  Haven.     Kieft,  in  a  Latin  letter  to  the 
governor   of  Massachusetts,   protested   against  English 
encroachments,  first  on  the  Connecticut,   then  at  Red 
Hill,  and  now  on  Long  Island.      Dudley,  in  reply,  dis-     * 
claimed  any  responsibility  for  settlers  who  did  not  ac- 
knowledge the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts. 

An  attempt  had  been  made  to  stop  the  encroachments 
of  the  English  by  purchasing  from  the  Indians  the  lands 
along  the  north  shore  of  the  Sound,  those  especially  in 
the  neighborhood  of  the  "  Archipelago,"  the  group  of 
little  islands  at  the  mouth  of  Norwalk  River.  But  set- 
tlers from  Connecticut,  crossing  the  Housatonic,  had 
already  planted  the  towns  of  Stratford  and  Fairfield. 
Another  party,  advancing  still  farther  west,  in  spite 
of  the  remonstrances  of  the  Dutch,  established  them- 
selves at  Stamford.  Still  another  party  fixed  them- 
selves at  Greenwich^  ultimately  the  frontier  town  of  Con- 
necticut ;  but  these  last,  of  whom  the  principal  was  Cap- 
tain Patrick,  formerly  in  the  employ  of  Massachusetts, 
were  presently  persuaded  to  acknowledge  the  jurisdiction  1642. 
of  the  Dutch.  About  the  same  time,  Mespath  and  Apnl> 
Gravenzande,  now  Newtown  and  Gravesend,  on  Long 
Island,  and  Vredeland,  now  Westchester,  on  the  main,  Oct.  3. 
were  occupied  by  Anabaptist  refugees  from  Massachu- 
setts, under  charters  of  settlement  from  the  Dutch.  So 
great,  indeed,  had  the  accession  of  English  inhabitants 
become,  as  to  make  the  appointment  of  an  English  secre- 
tary necessary,  an  office  conferred  upon  George  Baxter. 

Not  confining  their  encroachments  to  the  coasts  of 
Long  Island,  the  people  of  New  Haven  aspired  to  estab- 
I.  D  D 


418  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  lish  a  trading-house,  and  to  found  a  settlement  up  the 
'     Delaware  Bay.      In  the  prosecution  of  this  undertaking 

1641.  some  fifty  families  sailed  from  New  Haven.     They  touch- 
APnl-    ed  at  New  Amsterdam,  and  informed  Kieft  of  their  in- 
tention, against  which  he  protested  on  the  spot ;  but,  not 
heeding  this  protest,  they  proceeded  to  establish  them- 
selves, some  on  the  eastern  shore  of  Delaware  Bay,  near 
its  head,  at  Hog  or  Salem  Creek,  and  others  on  the 
Schuylkill.     To  this  interference  with  their  trade  the 

1642.  Dutch  would  not  submit.      Two  sloops  were  dispatched 
May<     from  New  Netherland  to  break  up  this  settlement,  an 

enterprise  in  which  the  commander  of  the  Swedish  fort 
readily  joined.  As  Lamberton  persisted  in  trading  to 
Aug.  the  South  River,  he  was  stopped  presently  after  at  New 
Amsterdam,  and  compelled  to  give  an  account  of  his  fur 
trade  in  the  Delaware,  and  to  pay  duties  on  the  whole. 
This  proceeding  gave  very  great  offense  at  New  Haven. 
Meanwhile,  the  quarrel  with  Connecticut  had  gone  so 
far  that  Kieft  proclaimed  a  non-intercourse  with  that  col- 

1643.  ony.     The  next  year  Lamberton  went  again  to  the  Del- 
aware ;  but  the  Swedish   commander,  "  a  very  furious 
and  passionate  man,  demeaned  himself,"  if  we  may  credit 
the  New  England  account,  "  as  if  he  had  neither  Chris- 
tian nor  moral  conscience."      Under  false  pretenses  of 
conspiracy  with  the  Indians,  he  got  Lamberton  into  his 
power,  and  obliged  him  to  pay  a  ransom.      The  others 
he  compelled  to  swear  allegiance  to  Sweden. 

While  thus  in  controversy  with  their  English  neigh- 
bors, the  people  of  New  .Amsterdam  became  involved 
also  in  hostilities  with  the  Indians.  Fire-arms  were 
freely  sold  by  the  colonists  of  Rensselaerswyck  to  the 
Mohawks,  who  thus  became  more  than  ever  the  terror  of 
their  enemies  ;  but  Kieft  would  allow  none  to  be  sold  to 
the  Indians  about  New  Amsterdam,  upon  whom,  much 


PROGRESS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.      419 

to  their  disgust,  he  even  undertook  to  levy  a  tribute.  CHAPTER 

The  Raritans,  a  tribe  on  the  west  shore  of  the  Hudson, 

were  accused  of  having  attacked  a  Dutch  bark  with  de-  1640. 
sign  to  rob  it.      They  were  also  suspected,   falsely  it    July- 
would  seem,  of  stealing  hogs  from  Staten  Island.     On 
these  grounds,  an  expedition  was  sent  against  them,  their 
crops  were  ravaged,  and,  in  spite  of  the  orders  of  Van 
Tienhoven,  the  leader,  several  warriors  were  barbarously 
killed.      The  Raritans  amused  the   director  with  pro-  1641, 
posals    of  peace,   but   took   the   opportunity   to    attack     July- 
Staten  Island,  where  they  killed  four  of  De  Vries's  serv- 
ants, and  burned  his  buildings.      Kieft  persuaded  some 
of  the  neighboring  tribes  to  assist  him,  by  offering  ten 
fathoms   of  wampum   for   the   head   of  every  Raritan. 
That  tribe  was  soon  induced  to  make  peace ;  but,  mean- 
while, a  new  quarrel  had  broken  out. 

Twenty  years  before,  the  servants  of  Director  Minuet 
had  murdered  an  Indian  warrior,  upon  whose  infant  neph- 
ew, according  to  the  notions  of  the  Indians,  the  duty  de- 
volved of  revenging  his  uncle's  death.  The  nephew, 
now  grown  up,  had  performed  that  duty  by  killing  an 
inoffensive  old  Dutchman.  The  murderer  was  demanded^ 
but  his  tribe,  who  dwelt  up  the  Hudson  about  Tappan, 
refused  to  give  him  up,  on  the  ground  that,  in  revenging 
his  uncle's  death,  he  nad  only  done  what  he  ought. 

The  director  presently  summoned  a  meeting  of  mas-  Aug.  28. 
ters  of  boweries  and  heads  of  families  to  consult  what 
should  be  done.     As  the  harvest  was  not  yet  gathered, 
they  advised  to  protract  matters  by  again  demanding 
the  murderer,  but,  meanwhile,  to   prepare  for   an   ex- 
pedition.    To  assist  in  these  preparations,   a  board  of 
"  Twelve  Men"  was  appointed  by  the  commonalty.     This 
popular  board  presently  turned  their  attention  to  civil  af-  1642. 
fairs.     Kieft's  council  consisted  only  of  himself  and  La  Jan  51 


420  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  Montaigne,  a  Huguenot  gentleman,   Kieft  having  two 
votes.      The  Twelve  Men  desired  that  the  number  of 

1642.  counselors  might  be  increased  to  five ;  they  asked  local 
magistrates  for  the  villages ;  and  offered  several  other 
suggestions,    to  which  the  director    at  first   seemed  to 

Feb.  18.  lend  a  favorable  ear,  but  he  soon  issued  a  proclamation, 
forbidding  the  board,  "  on  pain  of  corporeal  punishment," 
to  meet  again  without  his  express  permission,  such 
meetings  "  tending  to  the  serious  injury  both  of  the 
country  and  our  authority."  Eighty  men  were  sent 
March,  against  the  hostile  Indians  under  Van  Dyck,  ensign  in 
the  company's  service;  but  the  guide  missed  his  way, 
the  commander  lost  his  temper,  and  the  men  returned 
without  meeting  the  enemy.  The  Indians,  however, 
were  so  alarmed  that  they  asked  for  peace,  promising  to 
give  up  the  murderer ;  but  this  promise  they  never  ful- 
filled. 

A  new  difficulty  presently  arose.  One  of  the  Hack- 
ensacks,  a  tribe  on  the  Hudson  opposite  Manhattan,  had 
been  made  drunk  by  some  colonists,  and  then  robbed. 
In  revenge,  he  killed  two  Dutchmen.  The  chiefs  offered 
•wampum  by  way  of  atonement,  remonstrating,  at  the 
same  time,  against  the  practice  of  selling  brandy  to  their 
people,  as  having  been  the  cause  of  the  present  difficulty. 
Kieft,  like  Massachusetts  in  the  case  of  the  Pequods, 
would  be  content  with  nothing  but  \>lood.  While  this 

1643.  dispute  was  still  pending,  the  Mohawks  attacked  the 
Feb-     late  hostile  tribe  about  Tappan.     They  fled  for  refuge  to 

the  Dutch,  who  took  pity  on  them,  and  gave  them  food  ; 
and  they  soon  scattered  in  various  directions,  the  greater 
part  joining  the  Hackensacks.  There  had  been  all  along 
at  New  Amsterdam  a  peace  party,  headed  by  De  Vries, 
who  counseled  patience  and  forbearance,  and  insisted  on 
the  necessity  of  keeping  on  good  terms  with  the  In- 


PROGRESS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.      42! 

dians ;  and  a  war  party,  led  by  Secretary  Van  Tienhoven,  CHAPTER 

restless,  passionate,  and  eager  for  blood.     At  a  Shrove- 

tide  feast,  warm  with  wine,  Kieft  was  persuaded  by  1643. 
some  leaders  of  the  more  violent  party  to  improve  the 
present  opportunity  to  punish  the  Indians  so  lately  en- 
tertained at  New  Amsterdam  for  not  having  fulfilled 
their  former  promise  to  give  up  the  murderer.  In  spite 
of  the  remonstrances  of  Bogardus,  La  Montaigne,  and  De 
Vries,  two  companies  were  fitted  out,  one  of  soldiers, 
under  Sergeant  Rodolf,  the  other  of  volunteers,  headed 
by  a  chief  instigator  of  the  expedition,  one  of  the  late 
Twelve  Men,  Maryn  Adriaensen,  once  a  freebooter  in 
the  West  Indies.  There  were  two  encampments  of  the 
Indians,  against  which  these  two  companies  proceeded,  Feb.  25. 
"in  full  confidence,"  so  their  commission  says,  "that 
God  would  crown  their  resolution  with  success."  The 
Indians,  taken  utterly  by  surprise,  and  supposing  them- 
selves attacked  by  the  formidable  Mohawks,  hardly 
made  any  resistance.  De  Vries  tells  us,  in  his  Voyages, 
that,  being  that  night  at  the  director's  house,  he  dis- 
tinctly heard  the  shrieks  of  the  victims  sounding  across 
the  icy  river.  Warriors,  old  men,  women,  and  children 
were  slain  without  mercy,  to  the  number  of  eighty  or 
more.  Babes,  fastened  to  the  pieces  of  bark  which  the 
Indian  women  use  as  cradles,  were  thrown  into  the 
water,  and  the  miserable  mothers,  who  plunged  in  after 
them,  prevented  by  the  Dutch  party  from  relanding, 
perished  with  their  infants.  The  wounded  who  remain- 
ed alive  the  next  morning  were  killed  in  cold  blood,  or 
thrown  into  the  river.  Thirty,  however,  were  taken 
prisoners  and  carried  the  next  day  to  New  Amsterdam, 
along  with  the  heads  of  several  others. 

Some  inhabitants  of  Long  Island,  with  a  like  mad  ap- 
petite for  blood,  asked  permission  to  attack  their  Indian 


422  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  neighbors.      These  Indians  had  always  been  good  friends 

of  the  Dutch,  and  Kieft  refused  permission;  but  advant- 

1643.  age  was  taken  of  some  ambiguity  in  his  answer,  and  an 

expedition  was  soon  sent  to  plunder  their  corn,  in  the 

course  of  which  two  Indians  were  slain. 

Roused  by  these  injuries,  eleven  petty  tribes,  some  on 
the  main  land,  and  the  others  on  Long  Island,  united  to 
make  war  on  the  Dutch,  whose  scattered  boweries  now 
extended  thirty  miles  to  the  east,  twenty  miles  north,  and 
as  far  south  from  New  Amsterdam.  The  houses  were 
burned,  the  cattle  killed,  the  men  slain,  and  several  women 
and  children  made  prisoners.  The  Indians,  partially 
supplied  with  fire-arms,  and  wrought  up  to  the  highest 
pitch  of  rage  and  fury,  were  truly  formidable.  The  ter- 
rified and  ruined  colonists  fled  on  all  sides  into  New  Am- 

March  i.  sterdam.  Roger  Williams  was  there  on  his  first  voyage 
to  England.  "  Mine  eyes  saw  the  flames  of  their  towns," 
he  writes,  "the  frights  and  hurries  of  men,  women,  and 
children,  and  the  present  removal  of  all  that  could  to 

March  4.  Holland."  A  fast  was  proclaimed.  The  director,  as- 
sailed with  reproaches  and  in  danger  of  being  deposed, 
was  obliged  to  take  all  the  settlers  into  the  company's 
service  for  two  months.  Adriaensen  the  freebooter,  lead- 
er of  the  volunteers  in  the  first  attack  on  the  Indians, 
attempted  an  unsuccessful  expedition,  during  which  he 
had  the  mortification  to  see  his  own  bowery  ruined. 
Finding  himself,  on  his  return,  stigmatized  as  a  murder- 
er for  having  instigated  the  massacre  at  Hackensack,  in 
March  21.  a  violent  fit  of  passion  he  attacked  Kieft,  pistol  and  cutlass 
in  hand.  But  he  was  disarmed,  and,  in  spite  of  the  ef- 
forts of  his  partisans  to  release  him,  was  presently  sent 
prisoner  to  Holland. 

The  Indians,  satiated  with  revenge,  soon  made  ad- 
vances toward  a  reconciliation,  which  the  Dutch  eager' 


PROGRESS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.      423 

Iy  met.      De  Vries  proceeded  to  Rockaway,  where  an  in-  CHAPTER 

terview  was  had  with  one  of  the  principal  hostile  chiefs. . 

He  was  persuaded,  with  several  of  his  warriors,  to  visit  1643. 
New  Amsterdam,  and  a  treaty  of  peace  was   speedily  March  25 
arranged.      A  month  after,  the  Hackensacks  and  other  April  22. 
tribes   on  the   river  came   into  the  same   arrangement. 
But  the  presents  given  were  not  satisfactory,  and  they 
went  away  in  no  very  good  humor. 

Shortly  after  this  pacification,  Kieft  wrote  to  the  Com-  July, 
missioners  for  the  United  Colonies  of  New  England,  con- 
gratulating them  on  their  recent  union.  He  complained, 
however,  of  certain  misrepresentations  lately  made  to  the 
Dutch  embassador  in  London  by  Lord  Say  and  Hugh 
Peters,  the  Massachusetts  agent,  and  he  desired  to  know 
whether  the  commissioners  intended  to  uphold  the  people 
of  Connecticut  in  their  "insufferable  wrongs,"  especially 
their  treatment  of  the  Dutch  residents  at  the  fort  of  Good 
Hope.  The  commissioners,  at  their  next  meeting,  sent  Sept. 
back,  in  reply,  a  whole  batch  of  complaints  on  the  part  of 
Connecticut  and  New  Haven,  to  which  Kieft  rejoined,  vin- 
dicating the  Dutch  title  to  the  shores  of  the  Sound. 

While  the  director  was  engaged  in  this  controversy, 
New  Amsterdam  was  visited  by  Sir  Edmund  Plowden, 
whose  grant  of  New  Albion  has  been  mentioned  in  a  for- 
mer chapter.  But  the  •"  Albion  knights,"  as  they  were 
called  in  the  charter,  had  no  means  to  enforce  their  pre- 
tensions, and  the  earl-palatine  presently  retired  to  Vir- 
ginia, without  any  attempt  at  the  conversion  of  the  twen- 
ty-three kings  of  Charles  or  Delaware  River,  set  forth 
in  the  pateVit  as  the  great  object  of  the  grant. 

Meanwhile,  the  Indian  war  broke  out  anew.  A  tribe 
on  the  Hudson,  north  of  the  Highlands,  which  had  taken 
no  share  in  the  former  war,  attacked  and  plundered  a 
Dutch  canoe  coming  from  Fort  Orange,  laden  with  furs. 


424  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  The  frontier  boweries  were  again  assailed  by  a  new  con- 

XIH.  J 
federacy  of  seven  tribes,  some  of  them  inhabitants  of  the 

1643.  main  land  and  others  of  Long  Island.      The  colony  of 
Sept.    Achter  Cul,  behind  Newark  Bay,  was  completely  ruined. 
So  were  Vredeland  and  Newtown.      It  was  at  this  time 
that  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  slain,  with  all  of  her  family, 
except   a   grand-daughter   taken    prisoner.      The   Lady 
Moody's  settlement  at  Gravesend  was  also  attacked  ;   but 
she  had  a  guard  of  forty  men,  who  repulsed  the  Indians. 
In  this  emergency  the  commonalty  had  again  been 
Sept.  13.  resorted  to.     A  meeting  of  the  inhabitants  had  been  called 
by  the  director,  and  a  board  of  "  Eight  Men"  appointed 
to  aid  and  advise  in  the  conduct  of  the  war.      To  pre- 
vent the  English  settlers  from  leaving  the  province,  fifty 
or  more  were  taken  into  the  company's  pay,  the  com- 
monalty having  agreed  to  meet  a  third  of  the  expense. 
Underbill,  one  of  the  heroes  of  the  Pequod  war,  whose 
former  residence  in  Holland  had  made  him  familiar  with 
the  Dutch  language,   and  who   had  lately  removed  to 
Stamford,  was  appointed  to  command  the  Dutch  soldiers. 
Application  was  also  made  at  New  Haven,  through  Un- 
derbill and  Allerton,  a  New  England  merchant  who  had 
removed  from  Plymouth  to  Manhattan,  for  an  auxiliary 
force  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  men  ;  but  the  people  of  that 
colony  had  not  forgotten  their  expulsion  from  the  Dela- 
ware ;  they  doubted,  also,  the  justice  of  the  quarrel,  and, 
on  that  ground,  refused  their  aid.      The  "  Eight  Men," 
Oct  24.  in  an  appeal  to  Holland,   give  an  affecting  account  of 
the  wretched  condition  of  the  colony.      The  inhabitants, 
driven  from  their  boweries,  of  which  only  three  remain- 
ed on  the  Island  of  Manhattan,  were  mostly  clustered 
in  straw  huts  about  a  ruinous  and  hardly  tenable  fort, 
themselves  short  of  provisions,  and  their  cattle  in  danger 
of  starving.     A  palisade,  kept  up  for  the  next  fifty  years, 


PROGRESS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.      425 

where  Wall-street  now  runs,  was  presently  erected  as  a  CHAPTER 

J                             XIIL 
protection  for  New  Amsterdam.  

Several  expeditions  against  the  Indians  were  mean-  1643. 
while  undertaken.  Counselor  La  Montaigne,  with  a  force  r)ec- 
of  three  companies,  Dutch  burghers  under  Captain  Kuy- 
ter,  English  colonists  under  Lieutenant  Baxter,  and  Dutch 
soldiers  under  Sergeant  Cock,  crossed  to  Staten  Island. 
The  Indians  kept  out  of  the  way,  but  their  village  was 
burned,  and  several  hundred  bushels  of  corn  were  de- 
stroyed. The  same  party  proceeded  soon  after  in  three 
yachts  against  the  Indians  near  Stamford,  who  had  com- 
mitted great  ravages.  They  landed  at  Greenwich,  and 
marched  all  night  through  the  snow,  but  found  no  enemy. 
Having  returned  in  no  good  humor  to  Stamford,  one  of  1644. 
the  Dutchmen  got  into  an  altercation,  of  a  Sunday  after-  Jan-  2* 
noon,  at  Underbill's  house,  with  Captain  Patrick,  the 
founder  of  Greenwich,  at  whose  suggestion  chiefly  the 
expedition  had  been  undertaken.  Patrick  resented  a 
charge  of  treachery  by  spitting  in  the  Dutchman's  face. 
The  Dutchman  drew  a  pistol  and  shot  him  dead  on  the 
spot.  This  Patrick,  it  will  be  remembered,  had  accom- 
panied Winthrop  in  the  migration  to  Massachusetts,  and 
had  been  employed,  along  with  Underbill,  to  teach  mili- 
tary discipline.  "He  was  made  a  freeman,"  Winthrop 
tells  us,  "  and  admitted  a  member  of  the  church  at  Water- 
town  ;  but,  being  proud  and  otherwise  vicious,  he  was  left 
of  God  to  a  profligate  life,  which  brought  him  at  last  to 
destruction  by  the  hand  of  one  of  that  people  from  whom 
he  sought  protection  after  he  had  fled  from  the  yoke  of 
Christ  in  the  Massachusetts,  the  strictness  of  whose  dis- 
cipline he  would  neither  bear  in  the  church  nor  yet  in 
the  country." 

The  expedition,  however,  was  not  wholly  unsuccessful. 
Four  of  the  Stamford  people  volunteered  to  hunt  up  the 


426       HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  Indians,  and,  under  their  guidance,  some  five-and-twenty 
'  of  the  boldest  of  the  party  surprised  a  small  Indian  village, 
1644.  killed  several  women,  and  made  prisoners  of  an  old  man, 
two  women,  and  some  children.  The  Indian  prisoner,  to 
earn  favor,  offered  to  show  the  way  to  the  forts  of  the 
Tappan  Indians;  and  Baxter  and  Cock,  with  sixty-five 
men,  were  presently  sent  on  an  expedition  thither.  They 
found  the  Indian  castles  strong  and  well  adapted  for  de- 
fense, nine  feet  high,  studded  with  port-holes,  and  built 
of  five-inch  timbers,  bound  with  heavy  beams.  But  the 
Indians  were  gone,  and  the  forts  were  empty.  The  in- 
vaders marched  some  forty  miles  into  the  country,  kill- 
ed an  Indian  or  two,  took  prisoners  some  women  and 
children,  destroyed  a  little  corn,  set  fire  to  the  forts,  and 
returned  to  New  Amsterdam.  f  .  ' 

Another  expedition  was  directed  against  a  tribe  on 
Long  Island,  hitherto  esteemed  friendly,  but  recently  ac- 
cused of  secret  hostilities.  The  Dutch  had  given  the 
name  of  Hemstede  to  the  district  inhabited  by  this  tribe. 
La  Montaigne  sailed  with  a  hundred  and  twenty  men, 
Dut«h  soldiers  under  Cock,  English  led  by  Underbill, 
and  burghers  under  Pietersen.  Underbill,  with  eight- 
een men,  marched  against  the  smaller  village,  and  La 
Montaigne,  with  the  main  body,  against  the  other.  Both 
parties  were  completely  successful.  They  took  the  vil- 
lages by  surprise,  and,  with  the  loss  of  only  one  killed 
and  three  wounded,  slew  upward  of  a  hundred  Indians. 
But  the  victory  was  disgraced  by  atrocious  cruelties 
on  two  Indian  prisoners,  hacked  to  pieces  with  knives 
in  the  streets  of  New  Amsterdam. 

Captain  Underbill  having  been  sent  to  Stamford  to  re- 

connoiter,  was  presently  dispatched,  with  Ensign  Van 

Feb.     Dyck  and  a  hundred  and  twenty  men,  in  three  yachts, 

upon  a  new  enterprise  against  the  Indians  in  that  neigh- 


PROGRESS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.  427 

borhood.      He  landed  at  Greenwich,  and.  after  a  tedious  CHAPTER 

XIII 

march  in  the  snow,  crossing  on  the  way  a  rocky  hill,  and 

fording  two  rivers,  silently  approached  the  Indian  village  1644. 
by  moonlight.  It  was  situate  behind  a  mountain,  which 
sheltered  it  from  the  north  winds,  and  contained  three 
rows  or  streets  of  wigwams.  A  large  number  of  Indians, 
assembled  to  celebrate  some  festival,  made  a  desperate 
resistance ;  but,  after  an  hour's  fighting,  during  which 
many  Indians  were  slain,  the  village  was  set  on  fire,  and 
all  the  horrors  of  the  Pequod  massacre  were  renewed. 
It  was  said  that  five  hundred  perished  in  the  battle  or 
the  flames.  Large  fires  were  kindled,  and  the  victors 
slept  on  the  field.  Fifteen  had  been  wounded,  but  none 
killed.  They  reached  Stamford  the  next  day  at  noon, 
where  they  were  kindly  entertained  by  the  English  set- 
tlers, and,  two  days  after,  arrived  at  New  Amsterdam, 
where  a  public  thanksgiving  was  ordered. 

Some  of  the  hostile  tribes  now  asked  for  peace,  but 
others  still  continued  the  war.  The  Dutch  West  India 
Company,  made  bankrupt  by  the  expenses  of  military 
operations  in  the  Brazils,  was  quite  unable  to  afford  any 
assistance,  and  a  bill  for  2622  gilders,  $1045,  drawn 
upon  it  by  the  director,  which  some  of  the  New  En- 
gland traders  at  Manhattan  had  cashed,  came  back  pro- 
tested. The  director  imposed  an  excise  duty  on  wine,  June  21. 
beer,  brandy,  and  beaver.  Though  no  aid  could  be  ob- 
tained from  Holland,  unexpected  but  opportune  assist- 
ance arrived  from  Cura^oa,  in  a  body  of  a  hundred  and 
thirty  soldiers  lately  expelled  from  Brazil,  where  the  Por- 
tuguese had  risen  against  the  Dutch.  The  inhabitants 
of  Cura^oa,  who  did  not  need,  and  had  no  means  to  main- 
tain these  soldiers,  sent  them  to  New  Amsterdam ;  and  July, 
their  arrival  enabled  Kieft  to  dismiss,  but  "  in  the  most 
civil  manner,"  the  English  auxiliaries  hitherto  employed. 


428  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  These  soldiers  were  billeted  on  the  inhabitants,  and  the 
'      excise  duties  were  continued  to  provide  them  with  cloth- 
1644.  ing.     The  Eight  Men  denied  the  right  to  levy  these 
Aug.  4.  taxes,  and  the  brewers  resisted ;  but  Kieft  insisted  on 
Oct.  28.  payment.     Presently  the  Eight  Men  appealed  to  Hol- 
land  in   a   protest  complaining  in   emphatic   terms  of 
Kieft's  conduct  in  the  origin  and  progress  of  the  war. 
The  inhabitants  also  expressed  their  opinions  with  much 
freedom,  and  the  schout-fiscal  at  New  Amsterdam  soon 
had  his  hands  full  of  prosecutions  for  defamation  of  the 
director's  character. 

Rensselaerswyck,  the  only  portion  of  the  province 
which  had  escaped  the  ravages  of  this  war,  had  received, 
1642.  two  or  three  years  before,  an  accession  of  settlers,  among 
them  John  Megalapolensis,  a  "  pious  and  well-learned 
minister,"  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  the  earliest  ex- 
tant account  of  the  Mohawks.  Under  the  guns  of  the 
Fort  Aurania,  but  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  patroon, 
a  little  village  had  sprung  up  near  the  bend  of  the  river, 
and  hence  familiarly  known  among  the  inhabitants  as 
the  Fuyk,  or  Beversfuyk,  but  officially  as  Beverwyck, 
the  present  Albany.  Here  a  church  had  been  built,  and 
here  resided  Van  Cuyler,  the  president-commissary ;  also 
Van  der  Donck,  graduate  of  the  University  of  Leyden, 
schout-fiscal  of  the  colony,  and  author  of  a  Description 
of  New  Netherland. 

Very  jealous  of  his  feudal  jurisdiction,  aspiring,  in 
fact,  to  a,  substantial  independence,  the  patroon  would 
grant  no  lands  unless  the  settlers  would  agree  to  re- 
nounce their  right  of  appeal  to  the  authorities  at  New 
Amsterdam.  He  was  equally  jealous  of  his  monopoly  of 
importation ;  but  Van  der  Donck,  unwilling  to  be  esteem- 
ed "  the  worst  man  in  the  colony,"  especially  "  as  his 
term  of  office  was  short,"  was  rather  backward  in  en- 


PROGRESS   OF   NEW  NETHERLAND.  429 

forcing  the  severe  laws  against  irregular  trade.     This  CHAPTER 

XIII. 

lukewarmness  produced  a  violent  quarrel  between  him 

and  the  zealous  Van  Cuyler.  Van  der  Donck  was  even  1642. 
accused  of  secretly  fomenting  among  the  inhabitants  a 
spirit  of  discontent  against  these  regulations,  represented 
li  as  an  attempt  to  steal  the  bread  out  of  their  mouths" 
— a  discontent  which  showed  itself  not  only  in  a  protest 
against  Van  Cuyler,  signed  "  in  a  circle,"  but  even  in 
violent  threats  against  that  faithful  officer's  life. 

In  the  midst  of  these  contentions,  Van  Cuyler  was  in- 
formed that  a  party  of  Mohawk  warriors,  returning  suc- 
cessful from  an  inroad  into  Canada,  had  brought  with 
them  several  French  prisoners.  France  and  Holland  were 
allies,  and  Van  Cuyler,  in  hopes  to  ransom  these  prison- 
ers, made  a  journey  into  the  Mohawk  country,  the  beauty  August, 
of  which  he  greatly  admired.  He  was  received  with 
much  kindness,  and  feasted  on  wild  turkey;  but  the  Mo- 
hawks could  not  be  persuaded  to  part  with  their  prison- 
ers, the  principal  of  whom  was  Father  Jogues,  a  zealous 
Jesuit  missionary.  They  promised,  however,  to  spare 
their  lives,  and  twelve  Indians  escorted  Van  Cuyler  back 
to  Beverwyck. 

The  next  year,  on  one  of  their  trading  expeditions  to  1643. 
Fort  Orange,  the  Indians  brought  their  prisoner  with  July- 
them.  While  there,  news  was  received  of  a  repulse 
which  the  Mohawks  had  suffered  in  Canada.  It  was 
believed  that,  on  his  return  to  the  Mohawk  country, 
Jogues  would  certainly  be  burned,  and  the  Dutch  com- 
mandant advised  his  escape,  and  offered  to  assist  in  it. 
After  many  contrivances  to  evade  the  vigilance  of  the 
Indians,  he  was  concealed  in  the  hold  of  a  sloop,  but 
was  almost  stifled  with  bad  air.  The  Mohawks,  great- 
ly enraged,  threatened  vengeance,  but  were  induced  to 
accept  a  ransom.  Sent  to  New  Amsterdam,  itself  then 


430  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  suffering  from  Indian  war,  the  rescued  missionary  was 
kindly  furnished,  as  Roger  Williams  had  been  a  few 

1643.  weeks  before,  with  a  passage  to  Holland.  The  next  year 
similar  good  offices  were  performed  toward  Father  Bres- 
sani,  another  missionary  captured  by  the  Mohawks. 

As  security  against  interloping  traders,  a  fort  and  trad- 
ing house  were  built  on  a  precipitous  little  islet  in  the 
Hudson,  eight  or  ten  acres  in  extent,  called  Bear's,  now 
Rensselaer's  Island,  near  the  southern  boundary  of  the 
colony.  Watch-master  Coorn,  to  whom  the  command 
of  the  fort  was  intrusted,  was  directed  to  demand  of  all 
vessels  passing  a  toll  of  five  gilders,  and  the  lowering  of 
their  flags,  in  acknowledgment  of  the  staple  right  of 
Rensselaerswyck.  Skipper  Lookermans,  of  the  yacht 

July  5.  Good  Hope,  on  a  voyage  to  Fort  Orange,  being  hailed 
and  ordered  to  lower  his  colors,  replied  scornfully,  with 
an  oath,  that  he  would  strike  his  flag  for  nobody  "  save 
the  Prince  of  Orange  and  the  high  and  mighty  lords  his 
masters."  Thereupon  Coorn  let  fly  at  him  divers  shots, 
one  of  which  perforated  the  "  princely  flag"  of  their  high 
mightinesses  the  States-General,  which  the  intrepid  skip- 
per held  in  his  hands  the  while,  raised  just  above  his 
head.  Van  der  Huygens,  schout-fiscal  of  New  Nether- 
land,  avenged  this  insult  by  a  prosecution  against  Coorn, 
who  was  condemned  in  damages.  But  Coorn's  zeal  was 
presently  rewarded  by  promotion  to  the  office  of  schout- 
fiscal,  in  Van  der  Donck's  place. 

A  part  of  the  English  settlers  at  Stamford  sought 
safety  from  the  Indians  by  crossing  to  Long  Island,  where 
they  commenced  a  settlement  at  Hempstead,  under  a 

Nov.  16.  Dutch  patent,  on  the  lands  of  the  lately-exterminated 

April,  'tribe.  The  next  spring  some  friendly  Indians  were  taken 
into  the  Dutch  service,  and  Kieft,  on  a  visit  to  Fort  Or- 
ange, with  Van  der  Donck's  aid  made  a  treaty  with  the 


PROGRESS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.      431 

Mohawks,  by  the  terror  of  whose  name  the  hostile  tribes  CHAPTER 

J                                                                                xiii. 
were  brought  to  treat.     In  case  of  future  difficulties,  ap- 

plication  was  to  be  made  for  redress  by  the  Indians  to  1645. 
the  Dutch  director,  and  by  the  colonists  to  the  Indian  Aug-  30- 
sachems.     No  Indian  was  to  approach  Manhattan  arm- 
ed, nor  were  armed  colonists  to  visit  the  Indian  villages, 
unless  conducted  thither  by  some  Indian.     Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson's  captive  grand-daughter  was  given  up  on  ransom. 
The  treaty  was  approved  by  the  assembled  citizens  of 
New  Amsterdam,  and  a  day  of  general  thanksgiving  was 
ordered.      Advantage  was  taken  of  this  peace  to  obtain 
some  additional  cessions  on  Long  Island,  and  Vlissengen, 
now  Flushing,  was  granted  to  a  company  of  Anabaptist  Oct.  16. 
refugees  from  Massachusetts. 

The  settlements  about  New  Amsterdam,  aimost  ruin-  1644. 
ed  by  the  late  war,  could  hardly  muster  a  hundred  men. 
Of  thirty  flourishing  boweries,  but  five  or  six  remained. 
The  complaints  against  Kieft,  and  the  disastrous  condi- 
tion of  the  colony,  caused  much  discussion.  It  appear- 
ed, from  a  statement  of  accounts,  that  New  Netherland 
had  cost  the  company  more  than  half  a  million  of  gild- 
ers ($200,000),  over  and  above  all  receipts. 

Kieft  had  flattered  himself  that  the  little  Swedish  colo- 
ny on  the  Delaware  would  be  broken  up  for  want  of  sup- 
plies ;   and  during  the  first  three  or  four  years  it  was  in 
some  danger.      But  soon  Queen  Christina  appropriated  1642. 
a  liberal  sum  for  its  benefit,  and  John  Printz,  lieutenant  August- 
colonel  of  cavalry,  was  sent  out  as  governor.      The  colony  1643. 
was  to  be  governed  according-to  u  the  laws,  customs,  and 
usages  of  Sweden."     Punishments  were  not  to  be  inflict- 
ed except  according  to  "  ordinances  and  legal  forms,"  and 
by  the  advice  of  the  "  most  prudent  assessors  of  justice" 
to  be  found  among  the  inhabitants.     Toward  the  Dutch 
at  Fort  Nassau,  unless  molested  by  them,  Printz  was 


432  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  to  observe  friendly  conduct.      He  was  to  treat  the  na- 

XIII 

fives  with  "great  kindness  and  humanity,"  and  not  to 
1643.  allow  any  violence  or  injustice ;  to  instruct  them  in  the 
Christian  religion,  and  to  secure  their  good  will  and  at- 
tachment by  underselling  the  Dutch  and  English  traders. 
But  the  trade  in  furs  was  to  be  strictly  confined  to  the 
Swedish  Company's  agents.  He  was  to  pay  particular 
attention  to  the  cultivation  of  tobacco  and  the  propaga- 
tion of  sheep  and  cattle;  to  find  out  if  silk  and  wine 
could  be  produced  :  to  attempt  the  manufacture  of  salt 
from  sea  water ;  and  to  explore  the  mineralogy  of  the 
country.  Oak  wood  and  walnuts  were  to  be  sent  home 
as  ballast,  the  nuts  to  see  if  they  would  not  produce  oil. 
The  colony  was  to  be  governed  according  to  "  the  laws, 
customs,  and  usages  of  Sweden."  Punishments  were 
not  to  be  inflicted  except  according  to  "  ordinances  and 
legal  forms,"  and  by  the  advice  of  the  "  most  prudent 
assessors  of  justice"  to  be  found  among  the  inhabitants. 
Especially  was  he  enjoined  "  to  render  to  Almighty  God 
the  true  worship  which  is  his  due,  according  to  the  Con- 
fession of  Augsburg,  the  Council  of  Upsal,  and  the  cere- 
monies of  the  Swedish  Church ;"  looking  well  after  the 
religious  instruction  of  the  young,  and  taking  care  that 
"  a  good  ecclesiastical  discipline"  be  maintained.  Some 
Dutch  farmers  had  established  a  little  settlement  under 
the  Swedish  jurisdiction,  some  twenty  miles  below  Chris- 
tina. Printz  was  authorized,  if  he  deemed  it  expedient, 
to  remove  them  to  a  somewhat  greater  distance,  but  was 
specially  instructed  to  respect  their  rights,  and  to  allow 
them  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion. 

The  new  governor  established  his  residence  in  a  fort 
of  hemlock  logs,  at  Tinicum,  or  New  Gottenburg,  an  isl- 
and eight  or  ten  miles  below  the  mouth  of  the  Schuyl- 
kill.  He  built  at  the  mouth  of  Salem  Creek,  the  site 


PROGRESS  OF  NEW   SWEDEN.  433 

of  the  recent  New  Haven  settlement,   broken   up  lust  CHAPTER 

XIII. 

before  bis  arrival,  another  fort,  called  Elsenberg,  which 

mounted  six  or  eight  twelve  pounders,  and  commanded  1643. 
the  channel  of  the  river.  All  vessels  passing  were  re- 
quired to  lower  their  flags  and  submit  to  an  examination. 
Christina,  near  the  present  site  of  Wilmington,  the  chief 
Swedish  fort  and  trading  post,  was  well  stored  with  mer- 
chandise for  the  Indian  trade.  Still  another  post,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Schuylkill,  directly  in  front  of  the  Dutch 
fort  of  Beversreede,  cut  off  the  Dutch  from  the  Indian 
trade  in  that  quarter.  Fort  Nassau,  near  by,  but  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  the  chief  Dutch  station  on 
the  Delaware,  was  but  ill  supplied  with  goods,  and  the 
larger  share  of  the  trade  fell  presently  into  the  hands  of 
the  Swedes.  Some  tobacco  plantations  were  also  estab- 
lished, cultivated  by  indented  servants  and  transported 
criminals. 

The  Swedish  colony  was  so  successful  as  soon  to  be 
able  to  send  home  two  vessels  loaded  with  tobacco  and 
beaver.  Owing  to  the  war  between  Denmark  and  Swe-  1644. 
den,  these  vessels  were  obliged  to  put  into  a  Dutch 
port,  and  the  Dutch  West  India  Company  immediately 
claimed  the  per  centage  on  their  cargoes,  payable,  as  re- 
cognitions, by  all  vessels  trading  to  New  Netherland. 
An  angry  correspondence  ensued  between  the  Swedish 
embassador  and  the  Dutch  government.  The  claim  of 
duties  was  at  length  abandoned,  but  any  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  territorial  claims  of  the  Swedes  was  care- 
fully avoided. 

Printz  built  a  church  at  New  Gottenburg,  and,  in  con- 
formity to  his  instructions,  the  Swedish  Lutheran  wor- 
ship was  regularly  established  there,  under  the  adminis- 
tration of  John  Campanius  as  minister.  To  the  remon- 
strances of  the  Commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies  of 
I.  E  E 


434  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  New  England  against  the  expulsion  from  the  Delaware 

.of  the  New  Haven  settlers,  he  returned  a  respectful  an- 

1644.  swer ;  but  the  Swedes  and  Dutch,  though  they  did  not 
agree  among  themselves,  still  combined  to  exclude  the 
New  England  traders.  A  vessel,  fitted  out  by  a  Boston 
company,  entered  the  Delaware  to  ascend  in  search  of 
the  great  interior  lakes,  of  which  the  English  had  heard 
some  rumor,  and  whence  the  chief  supply  of  beaver  was 
said  to  come.  Though  provided  with  letters  and  a  com- 
mission from  the  governor  of  Massachusetts,  this  vessel 
was  not,  without  difficulty,  allowed  to  pass  the  Swedish 
fort,  was  closely  followed  by  two  pinnaces,  one  Dutch, 
the  other  Swedish,  was  forbidden  to  trade  with  the  In- 
dians, in  fact,  was  compelled  to  abandon  the  enterprise. 
1646.  The  Dutch  themselves  were  soon  threatened  with  a 
similar  exclusion.  They  were  forbidden  to  trade  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Schuylkill,  or  to  attempt  any  settlement 
on  the  west  bank  of  the  Delaware.  The  Dutch  who 
visited  Printz's  head-quarters  were  overwhelmed  with 
profane  abuse.  Nor  did  it  always  end  there,  for  they 
often  returned  "  bloody  and  bruised." 

Excluded  from  the  Delaware,  the  New  Englanders 
pressed  their  encroachments  toward  the  Hudson.  High 
up  the  Housatonic,  near  a  hundred  miles  in  the  interior, 
the  people  of  New  Haven  established  a  trading  post,  with 
the  design,  as  the  Dutch  alleged,  of  drawing  off  the  In- 
dian trade  from  Fort  Orange.  The  post  of  Good  Hope,  on 
the  Connecticut,  was  still  exposed  to  constant  annoyances. 
The  people  of  Connecticut  complained  of  it  as  a  refuge 
Sept.  for  runaway  servants  and  culprits  ;  and  in  an  angry  cor- 
respondence between  Kieft  and  the  New  England  Com- 
missioners, all  the  old  points  of  quarrel  were  revived  and 
reviewed. 

Kieft  meanwhile  became  more  and  more  unpopular 


PROGRESS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.      435 

Among  other  stretches  of  authority  which  made  the  peo-  CHAPTER 

pie  of  New  Netherland  complain  that  "  under  a  king 

they  could  not  be  worse  treated,"  he  had  denied  the  1645. 
right  of  appeal  from  his  decisions  to  the  authorities  in 
Holland.  Doughty,  the  Anabaptist  minister  of  Mespath, 
on  Long  Island,  having  claimed  an  appeal  in  a  case  con- 
cerning his  right  to  the  lands  of  that  village,  was  fined 
twenty-five  gilders  and  imprisoned  twenty-four  hours  for 
his  presumption.  Van  Hardinburg,  a  merchant  of  New 
Amsterdam,  presuming  in  the  like  way,  was  subjected 
to  a  similar  penalty.  This  raised  a  great  clamor ;  and 
even  a  new  set  of  prosecutions  for  libel  could  not  protect 
the  unpopular  director  from  being  called  by  very  hard 
names,  and  threatened  with  still  rougher  usage  whenever 
he  should  lose  the  protection  of  his  office.  He  became  1646. 
involved  in  an  unfortunate  quarrel  with  Bogardus,  the 
minister,  whom  he  accused  of  drunkenness  in  the  pulpit. 
Bogardus  retorted  from  that  very  pulpit  "  in  the  most 
brutal  manner,"  and  followed  up  the  controversy  with 
the  greater  zeal  when  the  recall  of  Kieft  became  present- 
ly known. 

In  consequence  of  the  numerous  and  loud  complaints 
against  Kieft,  the  directors  of  the  West  India  Company 
had  resolved  to  intrust  the  government  of  New  Nether-  July  28. 
land  to  Petrus  Stuyvesant,  the  governor  of  Cura^oa, 
whom  the  loss  of  a  leg  at  the  siege  of  St.  Martin's,  then 
occupied  by  the  Portuguese,  had  obliged  to  return  to  Hol- 
land. It  was  resolved,  also,  to  remove  the  remaining  re- 
strictions on  the  trade  of  New  Netherland,  by  throwing 
open  the  right  of  imports  and  exports  to  free  competi- 
tion ;  but  New  Amsterdam  still  remained  the  sole  port 
of  entry. 

Virginia  and  Maryland,  the  two  English  colonies  on  1647. 
the  south,  numbered,  by  this  time,  some  twenty  thou- 


436  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  sand  inhabitants ;  New  England,  on  the  north,  counted 

XIII 

'  near  as  many  more  ;  while  the  whole  of  New  Nether- 
1647.  land  had  hardly  two  or  three  thousand  colonists,  even  in- 
cluding the  Swedes  on  the  Delaware.  Beverwyck  was 
a  hamlet  of  ten  houses  ;  New  Amsterdam  was  a  village 
of  wooden  huts,  with  roofs  of  straw,  and  chimneys  of 
mud  and  sticks,  abounding  in  grog-shops,  and  places  for 
the  sale  of  tobacco  and  beer.  At  the  west  end  of  Long 
Island  were  six  plantations  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Dutch,  but  several  of  them  were  inhabited  chiefly  by 
English.  Under  the  charter  of  1640,  these  villages  en- 
joyed the  privilege  of  a  magistracy,  acting  chiefly  as  a 
local  tribunal,  annually  selected  by  the  director  from  a 
triple  nomination  made  by  the  magistrates  of  the  pre- 
vious year.  Officers  corresponding  to  a  constable  and 
clerk  were  named  by  the  director.  Even  this  limited  en- 
joyment of  municipal  rights  did  not  extend  to  New  Am- 
sterdam, where  the  director  and  fiscal  acted  as  town 
magistrates. 

The  West  India  Company  was  largely  concerned  in 
the  slave  trade,  and  some  slaves  were  imported  into  New 
Netherland.  Most  of  them  remained  the  property  of  the 
company,  and  the  more  trusty  and  industrious,  after  a 
certain  period  of  labor,  were  allowed  little  farms,  paying, 
^  in  lieu  of  all  other  service,  a  stipulated  amount  of  prod- 
uce ;  but  this  emancipation  did  not  extend  to  the  chil- 
dren— a  circumstance  inexplicable  and  highly  displeas- 
ing to  the  commonalty  of  New  Netherland,  who  could 
not  understand  "  how  any  one  born  of  a  free  Christian 
mother  could  nevertheless  be  a  slave." 

May  11.  Upon  the  arrival  of  the  new  director,  Kieft  complain- 
ed of  Kuyter  and  Melyn,  patroons  of  Staten  Island,  late 
leaders  of  the  Eight  Men,  for  slander  in  their  protest  of 
1644.  Stuyvesant,  who  had  the  arbitrary  temper  and 


PROGRESS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.      437 

the  haughty  airs  so  common  with  military  officers,  took  CHAPTER 

the  side  of  authority,  and  Kuyter  and  Melyn  were  fined, 

banished,  and  refused  an  appeal.  They  sailed  for  Hoi-  1647. 
land  along  with  Kieft  and  Bogardus,  in  a  ship  richly  Aug 
ladeji  with  furs ;  but,  in  consequence  of  having  two  Jo- 
nahs on  board — so,  at  least,  Winthrop  thought — fugi- 
tives from  New  England  justice,  who  had  sought  refuge 
at  New  Amsterdam,  and  whom  the  Dutch  authorities 
had  refused  to  deliver  up,  the  ship  was  cast  ashore  on  the 
coast  of  Wales,  and  Kieft,  Bogardus,  and  some  eighty 
others  perished — an  event  "  sadly  to  be  lamented,"  as 
Winthrop  admits,  "  on  account  of  the  calamity,"  but 
which  he  relates,  nevertheless,  with  very  evident  zest, 
as  a  palpable  judgment  on  New  England's  enemies. 

To  avoid  responsibility,  Stuyvesant  constituted  a  board  Sept. 
of  Nine  Men,  similar  to  those  of  his  predecessor,  and 
with  similar  results.  Van  der  Donck,  late  of  Rensse- 
laerswyck,  who  had  received,  for  his  services  in  the  1649. 
treaty  with  the  Mohawks,  the  patroonship  of  Colen 
Donck,  now  Yonkers,  just  above  Manhattan,  presently 
became  the  leader  of  this  new  board  ;  and  in  spite  of  the 
arbitrary  violence  of  the  director,  who  arrested  him,  im- 
prisoned him,  and  excluded  him  from  his  seat,  he  drew 
up  a  Memorial,  which  was  signed  by  all  the  Nine  Men, 
addressed  to  the  States-General  of  Holland,  and  praying 
their  protection,  and  the  substitution  of  a  burgher  gov- 
ernment for  that  of  the  company  ;  also  a  Remonstrance 
setting  forth  the  grievances  of  the  province,  and  citing 
the  example  of  New  England,  where  "  neither  patroons, 
nor  lords,  nor  princes  are  known,  but  only  the  people." 
This  appeal  was  carried  to  Holland  by  Van  der  Donck 
himself.  To  counterwork  it,  Stuyvesant  sent  after  him 
secretary  Van  Tienhoven,  fortified  with  a  letter  ob- 
tained, through  Baxter's  influence,  from  the  English 


438  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  magistrates  of  Gravesend,  testifying  to  his  good  admin- 

XIII. 

istration. 

1650.  Thus  entangled  at  home  and  attacked  in  Holland,  the 
Au»  director  was  simultaneously  engaged  in  an  embarrass- 
ing correspondence  with  New  England.  Besides  the  old 
matters,  the  New  England  Commissioners  complained 
loudly  of  the  Dutch  tariff,  and  of  the  selling  of  powder 
and  guns  to  the  Indians,  and  of  some  special  grievances 
committed  by  Stuyvesant ;  who,  after  repeatedly  solicit- 
ing an  interview,  in  a  manner  which  betrayed  his  weak- 
Sept,  ness,  proceeded  to  the  House  of  Good  Hope,  to  negotiate 
in  person  with  the  New  England  Commissioners.  His 
first  memorial  was  dated  New  Netherland,  to  which  the 
commissioners  objected,  as  assuming  jurisdiction  of  the 
place  of  meeting.  It  was  finally  arranged  that  Stuyve- 
sant should  date  from  Connecticut,  which  might  be  un- 
derstood of  the  river  as  well  as  of  the  colony ;  the  com- 
missioners, on  their  part,  dating  from  Hartford,  but  leav- 
ing out  New  England.  The  matters  in  dispute  related 
to  boundaries,  the  entertainment  of  fugitives,  and  to  sev- 
eral specific  injuries  mutually  alleged,  all  of  which  it  was 
at  last  agreed  to  refer  to  four  arbitrators,  all  of  them  En- 
glish, two  named  by  Stuyvesant,  and  two  by  the  com- 
missioners. By  their  award,  all  the  eastern  part  of  Long 
Island,  composing  the  present  county  of  Suffolk,  was  as- 
signed to  New  England.  The  boundary  between  the 
Connecticut  colonies  and  New  Netherland  was  to  begin 
at  Greenwich  Bay,  to  run  northerly  twenty  miles  into 
the  country,  and  beyond  "as  it  shall  be  agreed  ;"  but  no- 
where to  approach  the  Hudson  nearer  than  ten  miles. 
The  Dutch  retained  their  fort  of  Good  Hope,  with  the 
lands  appurtenant  to  it ;  but  all  the  rest  of  the  territory 
on  the  river  was  assigned  to  Connecticut.  Fugitives 
were  to  be  mutually  given  up. 


PROGRESS   OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.  439 

The  question  as  to  the  Delaware,  left  unsettled,  led  CHAPTER 

XIII. 

speedily  to  new  troubles.     The  project  of  planting  on 

that  river  was  revived  at  New  Haven.  A  company  of  1651. 
adventurers  bound  thither  touched  at  Manhattan,  and, 
relying  on  the  late  treaty,  and  on  letters  from  the  gov- 
ernors of  New  Haven  and  Massachusetts,  freely  avowed 
their  purpose.  Stuyvesant,  however,  seized  the  ship,  de- 
tained the  emigrants,  and,  to  strengthen  the  Dutch  in- 
terest on  the  river,  on  the  very  spot  which  the  New  Ha- 
ven adventurers  had  intended  to  occupy,  and  within  five 
miles  of  the  Swedish  fort  of  Christina,  he  built  Fort  Cas- 
imir,  on  the  present  site  of  Newcastle.  This  was  de- 
nounced at  New  Haven  as  a  violation  of  the  treaty  ;  and 
the  war  which  soon  broke  out  between  Cromwell  and  the  1653. 
Dutch  suggested  the  idea  of  the  conquest  of  New  Neth- 
erland,  still  torn  by  internal  dissensions.  The  disarm- 
ing of  Fort  Bearen,  and  the  imprisonment  at  New  Am- 
sterdam of  Van  Slechtenhorst,  Cuyler's  successor  as 
commissary,  had  produced  at  Rensselaerswyck  great  ill 
feeling,  which  Stuyvesant  aggravated  by  assuming  juris-  1652. 
diction  over  Beverwyck  as  within  the  precinct  of  the  APri* 10- 
company's  fort.  Van  der  Donck's  complaints,  being 
staved  off  by  the  company,  resulted  only  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  very  narrow  municipal  government  for  New  1653. 
Amsterdam,  composed  of  two  burgomasters  and  five  sche-  Feh 
pens,  of  whom,  however,  the  director  claimed  the  nom- 
ination, while  the  provincial  schout  continued  to  act  as 
city  schout  also.  Yet  even  with  this  board  it  was  not 
easy  to  agree  either  as  to  the  revenue  it  should  enjoy  or 
the  expenses  it  should  pay — a  matter  of  no  little  inter- 
est in  the  embarrassed  state  of  the  finances,  burdened  by 
a  loan  for  repairing  the  city  palisade,  and  adding  a  trench 
and  rampart  as  defenses  against  New  England  invasion. 
The  proceedings  at  New  Amsterdam  of  Leverett  and 


440  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  other  New  England  agents,  and  how  the  obstinacy 
'     of  Massachusetts  became  the  safety  of  the  Dutch,  have 

1653.  been  related  in  the  preceding  chapter.      Yet,  as  many 
aggressions  were  committed  under  privateering  commis- 
sions from  Rhode  Island,  advantage  was  taken  of  this 

Nov.  crisis  to  hold  a  convention  of  delegates  at  New  Am- 
sterdam, resulting  in  the  call  of  a  u  Landtdag,"  or  Diet, 

Dec.  10.  in  which  were  represented  that  city  and  eight  villages, 
four  Dutch  and  four  English.  Baxter,  who  seems  to 
have  quarreled  with  Stuyvesant  on  account  of  some  land 
grants  encroaching  on  Gravesend,  took  a  very  leading 
part.  It  was  he  who  drew  up  the  Remonstrance  of  the 
"Landtdag,"  complaining  of  the  arbitrary  legislation  of 
the  director  and  his  council ;  of  his  appointment  of  mag- 
istrates without  the  consent  or  nomination  of  the  people  ; 
and  of  his  favoritism  as  to  grants  of  land.  But,  in  spite 
of  their  appeal  to  "  the  law  of  nature"  and  the  usages 
of  Holland,  the  "presumption"  of  these  "  ignorant  sub- 
jects" was  haughtily  rebuked  by  the  director,  who  refer- 
red to  "God  and  the  West  India  Company"  for  his  au- 
thority, and  taunted  the  Dutch  members  with  subscribing 

Dec.  30.  to  the  "  project  of  an  Englishman."  Nor  could  the  com- 
pany see  in  the  Remonstrance  one  single  point  to  just- 

1654.  ify   complaint.      Stuyvesant  was   even   blamed  for   not 
May-     having  suppressed  "  the  seditious"  with  more  vigor,  and 
,  was  directed  to  punish  them  "  in  an  exemplary  manner  ;" 

an  order  which  the  peace  with  England  made  it  the  more 
easy  to  carry  out.  The  director  had  already  taken  care 
to  secure  the  loyalty  of  the  Dutch  villages,  Brukelyn, 
Amersforth  (now  Flatlands),  and  Midwout  (now  Flat- 
April,  bush),  by  granting  them,  under  the  charter  of  1640,  the 
same  municipal  rights  which  their  English  neighbors  had 

1655.  long  enjoyed;   and  Baxter  was  soon  after  deposed  from 
the  magistracy  of  Gravesend,  and,  when  he  attempted  to 
raise  an  insurrection,  was  arrested  and  imprisoned 


PROGRESS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.      44^ 

While  these  matters  were  pending,   and  before  the  CHAPTER 
danger  on  the  side  of  New  England  was  yet  over,  Ry- 
singh,  coming  out  to  New  Sweden  with  a  company  of  1654. 
soldiers,  as  successor  to  Printz,  succeeded,  by  stratagem  May  3L 
and  the  cowardice  of  the  commander,  in  getting  posses- 
sion of  Fort  Casimir.     But  Sweden  was  no  longer  a 
formidable  power,  and  the  company  sent  ships  and  sol- 
diers to  Stuyvesant,  with  orders  to  take  exclusive  pos-  1655. 
session  of  the  South  River.      Stuyvesant  was  absent  at 
the  moment  on  a  bootless  voyage  to  Barbadoes,  where  he 
found  an  English  fleet  which  cut  him  off  from  the  trade 
he  desired.      On  his  return,  he  proceeded  to  the  South  Sept.  5. 
River  with  six  hundred  men.     New  Sweden,  of  which 
the  whole  population  did  not  exceed  seven  hundred,  was 
unable  to  make  any  resistance  ;   and  that  province  was 
reabsorbed  into  New  Netherland.      Such  of  the  Swedes 
as  consented  to  take  an  oath  of  allegiance  were  guaran- 
teed the  possession  of  their  lands.      Those  who  refused 
were  shipped  to  Holland.      All  civil  connection  with  the 
mother   country   was    henceforth  terminated  ;    but   the 
Swedish  Lutheran  Church,  the  rights  and  freedom  of 
which  were  secured  by  the  capitulation,  continued  to  rec- 
ognize an  ecclesiastical  dependence  on  Sweden  down  to 
the  time  of  the  American  Revolution. 

The  director  was  hastily  recalled  from  the  South  Riv- 
er by  news  of  a  fresh  rupture  with  the  Indians.  Dur- 
ing his  absence  a  large  body  of  them  had  visited  New 
Amsterdam  in  sixty-four  canoes.  Behaving  with  some 
insolence,  they  were  driven  out  of  the  town,  when  they 
revenged  as  well  this  treatment  as  some  other  wrongs 
which  they  had  treasured  up,  by  attacking  Pavonia  and 
Staten  Island,  which  were  again  entirely  ruined.  In 
three  days  a  hundred  persons  were  killed,  and  a  hundred 
and  fifty  made  prisoners.  Twenty-eight  boweries  were 


442  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  broken  up.  and  a  loss  inflicted  estimated  at  $80,000. 

XIII 

'     Returning  in  haste,  Stuyvesant  took  prompt  measures 

1655.  for  defense  ;   but  he  judged  it  better  to  ransom  the  pris- 
oners than  to  attempt  their  recovery  by  arms. 

1656.  To  discharge  some  of  its  heavy  debts,  the  West  India 
Company  sold  to  the  city  of  Amsterdam  the  tract  just 
recovered  from  the  Swedes,  which  thus  became  again  a 
separate  jurisdiction  by  the  name  of  NEW  AMSTEL.     Nu- 
merous refugee  Protestants  were  sent  out  at  a  heavy  ex- 
pense, bound  to  remain  four  years  in  payment  of  their 
passage ;  but  they  suffered  greatly  from  sickness  and 
famine,  and  their  number  was  thinned  still  further  by 
desertions.     To  the  claims  set  up  by  Governor  Fendal 

1659.  to  this  territory  as  a  part  of  Maryland,  the  Dutch  re- 
sponded by  the  plea  of  prior  occupancy,  and  the  re-estab- 
lishment of  a  post  at  Hoarkill.  If  the  West  India  Com- 
pany would  have  taken  back  the  colony,  the  city  of  Am- 
sterdam would  have  willingly  relinquished  it ;  but  as 
this  was  declined  by  the  company,  which  was  already 
$600,000  in  advance  on  account  of  New  Netherland,  to 
prevent  conflicts  of  jurisdiction  which  had  already  arisen, 

1663.  the  city  became  the  purchaser  of  the  whole  Dutch  terri- 
tory on  both  banks  of  the  South  River. 

As  a  protection  to  the  fertile  tract  on  the  Esopus,  de- 
serted during  the  late  Indian  outbreak,  a  fortified  village 

1658.  had  been  established  there  ;  not,  however,  without  fresh 
hostilities  with  the  Indians,  provoked  by  the  cruel  folly 

3661.  of  the  colonists.  To  this  village,  called  Wildwyck,  to 
Bergen,  and  to  New  Haerlam,  in  the  north  part  of  Man- 
hattan Island,  village  charters  were  granted.  Staten 
Island,  the  patroon  rights  to  which  were  purchased  up 
by  the  company,  was  occupied,  for  the  third  time,  by  a 
colony  of  Waldenses. 

The  Lutherans  had  become  so  numerous  at  New  Am 


PROGRESS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.  443 

sterdam  as  to  desire  a  church  of  their  own  :  but  this  was  CHAPTER 

XIII. 

denied  them  by  Stuyvesant,  and,  on  appeal  to  Holland, 

by  the  company  also.  Instigated  by  Megapolensis,  now  1654. 
minister  at  Manhattan,  his  newly-appointed  colleague, 
Drusius,  and  Polhemus,  a  Dutch  clergyman  recently  set- 
tled at  Midwout,  on  Long  Island,  the  director  even  is- 
sued a  proclamation  against  conventicles,  inflicting  fines  1656. 
upon  both  preachers  and  hearers.  Though  aimed  partly, 
no  doubt,  at  the  disaffected  Anabaptists  at  Gravesend, 
it  was  indirectly  disapproved  by  the  company,  who  ex- 
pressly required  that  all  residents  should  be  allowed  "the 
free  exercise  of  their  religion  within  their  own  houses." 
Yet,  notwithstanding  this  hint,  the  proclamation  was  still 
enforced  against  public  conventicles,  and  with  special  se- 
verity against  the  Quakers,  whom  Stuyvesant  greatly 
hated  and  dreaded,  and  against  whom  he  launched  several 
new  proclamations,  copied  apparently  from  the  legislation 
of  New  England.  But,  on  the  appeal  of  John  Bowne,  of 
Flushing,  who  had  been  imprisoned,  fined,  and  banished,  1663. 
the  company  decidedly  rebuked  these  proceedings  as  tend- 
ing to  prevent  the  population  of  the  province.  Though 
religious  non-conformity  was  to  be  regretted,  yet,  so  they 
wrote  to  Stuyvesant,  to  a  certain  extent,  it  must  be 
"  connived  at."  "  Let  every  one  remain  free  as  long  as 
he  is  modest,  moderate,  his  political  conduct  irreproacha- 
ble, and  as  long  as  he  does  not  offend  others  or  oppose 
the  government.  This  maxim  of  moderation  has  always 
been  the  guide  of  our  magistrates  in  this  city,  and  the 
consequence  has  been  that  people  have  flocked  from  every 
land  to  this  asylum.  Tread  thus  in  their  steps,  and  we 
doubt  not  you  will  be  blessed." 

East  Hampton^  at  the  extreme  eastern  end  of  Long  1658, 
Island,  purchased  of  the  sachem  of  'Montauk  in  1648, 
had  annexed  itself  to  Connecticut  in  1658.      Some  set- 


444  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  tiers  at  Setauket,  which  they  named  Cromwell's  Bay  (now 

XIII 

'  Brookhaven),  of  whom  Underhill  was  one,  and  others  at 
1660.  Huntington,  still  further  west,  followed  this  example. 
These  towns  were  within  the  English  limits,  according 
to  the  treaty  of  1650  ;  but  another  party,  under  one 
1656.  Thomas  Pell,  had  reoccupied  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  aban- 
doned settlement,  and  an  exertion  of  force  became  nec- 
essary to  compel  them  to  submit,  and  to  accept  a  Dutch 
incorporation  as  Oost  Dorp,  or  East  Village  (now  Pel- 
ham}.  A  like  incorporation  was  also  granted  to  the  new 
English  settlement  of  Rust  Dorp^  on  Long  Island  (now 
Jamaica) ;  but  among  the  Dutch-English  on  that  island 
were  many  malcontents,  some  of  whom  applied  to  Crom- 
1659.  well  for  aid.  A  Massachusetts  company  even  explored 
the  Hudson  with  a  view  to  a  settlement  upon  it,  for  which 
purpose  they  asked  of  Stuyvesant  permission  to  ascend 
that  river  from  its  mouth.  When  he  refused,  the  ap- 
plication was  enforced  by  a  letter  from  the  New  England 
Commissioners,  who  claimed  that  the  limit  of  ten  miles 
east  of  the  Hudson  was  intended  only  for  New  Haven 
and  Connecticut,  and  could  have  no  reference  to  Mas- 
sachusetts, which,  by  its  charter,  extended  west  to  the 
South  Sea. 

1662.  No  sooner  had  Connecticut  obtained  a  royal  charter, 
as  will  be  related  in  the  next  chapter,  than  claims  were 
put  forth  under  it  to  all  Long  Island,  and,  indeed,  to  all 
the  main  land  east  of  the  Hudson.      To  add  to  Stuyve- 

1663.  sant's  embarrassments,  the  Indians  made  a  sudden  and 
June.    vi0ient  attack  on  the  village  at  Esopus  ;   and,  as  well  to 

solicit  a  general  union  against  them  as  to  urge  adherence 
Sept.  to  the  former  treaty  of  limits,  the  director  made  a  visit 
to  Boston.  The  New  England  Commissioners  assem- 
bled there  admitted  the  binding  force  of  the  treaty,  but 
would  take  no  action  to  sustain  it;  while  at  Hartford, 


PROGRESS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.      445 

whither  envoys  had  also  been  sent,  Stuyvesant  was  not  CHAPTER 
only  required  to  give  up  Oost  Dorp,  but  to  promise  also  ' 

not  to  interfere  with  the  Dutch-English  towns  on  Long  1663. 
Island,  as  the   conditions  on  which  alone   Connecticut 
would  delay,  for  the  moment,  to  grant  their  request,  al- 
ready made,  to  be  taken  under  her  jurisdiction. 

While  this  negotiation  was  still  going  on,  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  the  magistrates  of  New  Amsterdam  a  Conven- 
tion was  held  of  delegates  from  all  the  Dutch  villages,  Oct. 
including,  besides  Wildwyck,  New  Haerlam,  and  Bergen, 
the  three  old  ones  on  Long  Island,  to  which  New  Utrecht 
and  Bostwick  (now  Bushwicti)  had  lately  been  added. 
This  Convention  recommended  an  appeal  to  Holland  for 
aid.  Already,  indeed,  the  Dutch-English  towns  had  risen 
in  open  rebellion  under  one  John  Scott,  who  had  recently 
returned  from  England,  whither  he  had  gone  to  lay  com- 
plaints against  the  Dutch.  Scott  had  brought  thence 
some  rumors  of  movements  intended  there  ;  and  the  re- 
volters,  many  of  whom  were  as  adverse  to  a  Connecticut 
as  to  a  Dutch  connection,  presently  installed  him  as  their  1664. 
provisional  president.  They  even  so  threatened  their  June- 
Dutch  neighbors,  that  the  burghers  of  New  Amsterdam 
subscribed  a  loan  of  $12,000  for  the  defense  of  the  city  ; 
but  matters  were  temporarily  arranged  by  a  truce  for 
twelve  months. 

The  Esopus  Indians  had  already  been  severely  chas- 
tised by  three  expeditions  ;  and  a  new  assembly  of  twen-  April  10. 
ty-four  delegates  from  all  the  Dutch  villages  and  colo- 
nies advised  a  peace  with  them,  notwithstanding  express 
orders  from  Holland  for  their  extermination  Like  and 
equally  bootless  orders  had  also  come  to  put  down  the 
Long  Island  rebels ;  but  that  was  left  to  Connecticut, 
whose  magistrates  arrested  and  imprisoned  Scott,  as- 
suming jurisdiction  over  all  the  English  towns,  without 


446  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  any  regard  to  Stuyvesant's  protests.      But  a  new  and 

'      still  stronger  claimant  was  now  about  to  appear. 
1664.       Shortly  after  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  the  Duke 
of  York,  the  king's  brother,  had  purchased  up  the  vari- 
ous claims  of  Lord  Stirling,  already  so  often  mentioned, 

March  12.  and  this  purchase  was  soon  confirmed  by  a  royal  charter 
conveying  to  the  duke  a  great  American  territory,  called, 
in  honor  of  the  proprietary,  NEW  YORK.  Including,  on 
the  east,  the  tract  between  the  St.  Croix  and  the  Pema- 
quid,  one  of  Stirling's  provinces,  and  on  the  west  the  re- 
gion between  the  Connecticut  and  the  Delaware,  with  all 
the  islands  south  and  west  of  Cape  Cod  ;  swallowing  up 
New  Netherland  ;  encroaching  also  on  the  chartered  lim- 
its of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  this  new  province 
completely  embosomed  within  its  wide  circuit  the  old 
Puritan  colonies  of  New  England. 

Without  any  intimation  to  the  Dutch  of  impending 
hostilities,  four  ships  were  dispatched  with  five  hundred 
soldiers,  and  Richard  Nichols,  Sir  George  Cartwright, 
and  Robert  Carr  as  commissioners,  to  take  possession  of 
Aug.  New  Netherland  for  the  Duke  of  York.  They  touched 
at  Boston,  and  asked  there  for  additional  soldiers ;  but, 
as  the  same  commissioners  were  authorized  to  investi- 
gate certain  complaints  against  Massachusetts,  of  which 
an  account  will  presently  be  given,  their  reception  in 
that  colony  was  sufficiently  cold.  Without  waiting  for 
the  action  of  the  General  Court,  without  whose  sanc- 
tion, as  Endicott  alleged,  no  soldiers  could  be  raised,  the 
commissioners,  after  a  short  delay,  proceeded  toward  New 
Netherland.  The  newly-chartered  colony  of  Connecticut 
was  more  zealous,  and  Winthrop,  the  governor,  went 
personally  on  board  the  squadron,  which  presently  came 
to  anchor  within  Sandy  Hook. 

Stuyvesant,  a  stout  old  soldier,  zealous  for  his  em- 


ENGLISH  CONQUEST  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.  447 

ployers,  would  willingly  have   stood  a  siege  ;    but  the  CHAPTER 

Dutch  inhabitants  were  lukewarm,  while  the  English  on 

Long  Island,  no  inconsiderable  portion  of  the  colonists,  1664. 
had  already  risen  in  arms  and  joined  the  invaders. 

After  a  few  days'  negotiation,  and  much  warm  dis- 
pute between  the  director,  who  struggled  hard  to  main- 
tain his  authority,  and  the  burgomasters  and  principal 
inhabitants  of  New  Amsterdam,  who  were  resolved  not 
to  run  the  risk  of  an  attack,  through  the  mediation  of 
Winthrop  a  liberal  capitulation  was  arranged.  The 
Dutch,  besides  the  privileges  of  free  denizens  of  the  new 
province,  were  to  be  allowed  to  ship  their  produce  to 
Holland.  The  Dutch  law  of  inheritance  was  to  continue  . 
in  forc-3,  and  the  colonists  were  to  enjoy  the  liberty  of 
their  consciences  in  divine  worship  and  discipline. 

With  this  change  of  masters  New  Amsterdam  changed 
its  name  to  NEW  YORK. 

While  Nichols  remained  there  as  governor,  Cart- 
wright,  with  one  of  the  ships  and  a  detachment  of 
troops,  ascended  the  Hudson ;  and  the  colony  of  Rens- 
selaerswyck,  with  Fort  Orange  and  the  town  of  Bever- 
wyck,  quietly  surrendered.  That  town,  from  one  of  the  Sept.  29. 
Duke  of  York's  titles,  was  presently  called  Albany.  The 
fortified  settlement  at  Esopus  received  the  name  of 
Kingston.  Carr  entered  the  Delaware  with  another  ves-  Oct. 
sel,  and  the  surrender  of  the  posts  and  settlements  on 
that  river,  not  accomplished  without  bloodshed,  completed 
the  conquest. 

New  Netherlands,  thus  surrendered,  was  reckoned  to 
contain  about  ten  thousand  inhabitants,  of  whom  some 
fifteen  hundred  dwelt  at  New  Amsterdam.  That  city 
had  obtained  by  degrees  an  enlargement  of  its  privileges, 
the  right  to  an  annual  double  nomination  by  the  magis- 
trates, from  which  their  successors  must  be  selected ;  a 


448  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  schout-fiscal  of  its  own  ;   and,  in  consideration  of  recent 

efforts  for  defense,  the  entire  produce  of  the  excise  on 

1664.  beer  and  wine.  A  Latin  school  had  been  recently  es- 
tablished, the  schoolmaster  acting  also  as  physician.  The 
New  Amsterdam  magistrates  described  their  city  as 
"  adorned  with  so  many  noble  buildings  as  nearly  to  ex- 
cel every  other  place  in  North  America."  Nichols  saw 
only  some  narrow  streets  near  the  water's  edge,  a  fort 
containing  a  church,  a  few  good  buildings  covered  with 
tiles  clustered  about  it,  the  rest  small  thatched  cottages 
— the  whole  town,  as  he  complained,  not  able  to  furnish 
bedding  for  his  soldiers. 

Yet  New  York  was  already,  indeed  from  the  begin- 
ning it  had  been,  a  cosmopolitan  city.  As  Holland  was 
a  refuge  for  all  persecuted  sects,  so  representatives  of 
most  of  them  had  found  their  way  to  New  Amsterdam. 
Even  twenty  years  before,  according  to  Jogues,  the  Jesuit 
missionary,  not  less  than  eighteen  different  dialects  were 
spoken  in  it.  Refugee  Protestants  from  Spanish  Flan- 
ders, Bohemia,  France,  and  the  valleys  of  the  Alps,  fu- 
gitive sectaries  from  New  England,  Jews,  and  even  some 
Catholics,  were  to  be  found  there.  Yet  public  worship 
was  only  permitted  to  the  Dutch  Reformed  Churches  (pro- 
genitors of  a  now  numerous  communion,  which,  down  to 
the  American  Revolution,  remained  ecclesiastically  de- 
pendent on  the  classis  of  Amsterdam),  to  the  Swedish 
Lutherans  at  the  South  River,  and  to  such  of  the  En- 
glish on  Long  Island  as  substantially  conformed  in  doc- 
trine and  practice  to  the  Established  Church. 
1667.  At  the  treaty  of  peace,  the  Dutch  were  allowed,  as 
y'  compensation  for  New  Netherland,  to  retain  the  colony 
of  Surinam,  in  Guiana,  then  lately  planted  by  some  En- 
glish adventurers,  but  captured  by  the  Dutch  during  the 
war — an  exchange  the  policy  of  which  was  doubted  by 


ENGLISH  CONQUEST  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.  449 

many,   who  thought  colonies  within  the  tropics   more  CHAPTER 
profitable  than  plantations  in  North  America.     For  the  ________ 

first  hundred  years  Surinam  kept  pretty  equal  pace  1667. 
with  New  York.  Subsequently,  by  the  aid  of  Dutch 
capital  and  an  active  slave  trade,  it  advanced  with  rapid 
strides,  being  one  of  the  first  American  plantations  into 
which  the  cultivation  of  coffee  was  successfully  intro- 
duced. But,  about  the  time  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion, it  received  a  terrible  check  in  a  servile  insurrection, 
resulting,  after  a  destructive  war,  in  the  establishment  of 
an  independent  negro  community  in  the  rear  of  the  col- 
ony. The  cessation  of  the  slave  trade  having  put  a  stop 
to  increase  by  importations,  the  population  of  Surinam, 
under  the  joint  influence  of  slavery  and  bad  government, 
has  ever  since  been  wasting  away.  With  a  vast  unset- 
tled territory,  it  now  numbers  scarce  fifty  thousand  in- 
habitants— a  striking  contrast  to  the  growth  of  New 
York. 

By  the  simultaneous  treaty  with  France,  the  prov- 
ince of  Acadie  was  restored,  much  to  the  disgust  of  the 
people  of  New  England;  to  its  ancient  possessors,  with- 
out any  precise  specification  of  limits,  but  including  by 
name  La  Have,  Cape  Sable,  Port  Royal,  St.  John's,  and 
Pentagoet,  French  name  for  Penobscot.  As  Temple  ob- 
jected to  surrender  the  province  till  his  interests  were 
provided  for,  the  king  agreed  to  repay  his  expenditures 
to  the  amount  of  £16,200,  and  upon  the  strength  of  this 
promise  peremptory  orders  were  sent  out  to  give  up  the  1(569. 
province  to  the  French  ;  but  Temple  never  received  his 
money.  One  effect  of  this  surrender  was  a  great  cur- 
tailment of  the  eastern  portion  of  the  Duke  of  York's 
province. 

I.— FF 


450  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II. 

CHAPTER  J-  HE  Puritan  colonists  of  New  England  had  watched 
'     with  no  little  anxiety  the  rapid  progress  of  that  revolu- 


1660.  tion  m  Great  Britain  which  restored  Charles  II.  to  his 
July,  father's  thrones.  The  same  ship  that  brought  to  Boston 
the  first  news  of  the  Restoration,  brought  also  two  of  the 
regicide  judges  flying  for  their  lives,  Whalley  and  Goffe, 
high  military  officers  under  Cromwell.  Courteously  re- 
ceived in  Massachusetts  by  Governor  Endicott  and  the 
magistrates,  they  remained  there  for  some  time  without 
disguise  or  concealment.  The  news,  indeed,  by  this  ar- 
rival, was  by  no  means  decisive.  The  General  Court 
Oct.  of  Massachusetts  met  at  its  regular  session,  and  adjourn- 
ed without  taking  any  notice  of  the  changes  going  on  in 

Nov.  30.  England.  Some  weeks  after,  full  accounts  were  received 
of  the  re-establishment  of  royalty  ;  of  the  Act  of  Indem- 
nity, and  the  exception  from  it  of  all  those  concerned  in 
the  death  of  the  late  king  ;  of  the  execution  of  Peters 
and  the  imprisonment  of  Vane  ;  with  information  from 
Leverett,  the  colonial  agent,  of  numerous  complaints  by 
Royalists,  Episcopalians,  Baptists,  and  Quakers,  already 
preferred  against  the  colony. 

Dec.  19.  Upon  the  arrival  of  this  unwelcome  news,  the  Gener- 
al Court,  called  together  in  special  session,  adopted  an 
apologetical  address,  in  which  New  England  was  ingen- 
uously personified  as  the  king's  "  poor  Mephibosheth,  by 
reason  of  lameness,  in  respect  of  distance,  not  until  now 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.        451 

appearing  in  his  presence,  kneeling  with  the  rest  of  his  CHAPTER 
subjects  before  his  majesty  as  her  restored  king."      This  ___„ 
address  was  transmitted  by  the  hand  of  Temple,  the  pro-  1660. 
prietary  of  Nova  Scotia,  lately  a  resident  in  Massachu- 
setts, on  whose  friendly  and  favorable  representations  to 
the  king  much  reliance  was  placed.      It  excused,  at  con- 
siderable length,  the  capital  punishments  inflicted  on  the 
Quakers,  and  prayed  for  the  continued  and  undisturbed 
enjoyment  of  the  existing  civil  and  religious  institutions 
of  the  colony.      At  the  same  time  was  sent  a  similar  ad- 
dress to  Parliament,  and  letters  to  old  Lord  Say  and 
other  Puritan  noblemen,  whose  concurrence  in  the  Res- 
toration might  be  supposed  to  give  them  some  present 
interest  at  court. 

The  fugitive  regicides  had  already  retired  to  New  1661. 
Haven,  thus  escaping  a  royal  order  for  their  arrest  which 
presently  arrived  at  Boston  by  the  hands  of  some  zeal-  Fe.b. 
ous  young  Royalists,  to  whom  th«  General  Court  of  Mas- 
sachusetts intrusted  its  execution.  The  magistrates 
wrote  a  pressing  letter  on  the  subject  to  Governor  Leet, 
of  New  Haven.  The  Commissioners  for  the  United  Col- 
onies of  New  England,  at  their  meeting  a  few  months  Sept 
afterward,  issued  their  proclamation  also  against  these 
fugitives.  But,  with  all  this  show  of  zeal,  there  was  no 
intention  to  give  them  up,  if  it  could  be  avoided.  By 
great  privacy  and  the  aid  of  faithful  friends,  they  re- 
mained undiscovered,  and  were  presently  joined  by  Col- 
onel John  Dixwell,  another  of  the  late  king's  judges. 
In  spite  of  diligent  efforts  for  their  arrest,  all  three  fin- 
ished their  days  in  New  England.  Dixwell  lived  open- 
ly at  New  Haven  under  a  feigned  name ;  the  other  two 
remained  in  concealment,  sometimes  in  Connecticut, 
sometimes  in  Massachusetts. 

As  further  evidence  of  their  loyalty,  the  magistrates  of 


452  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  Massachusetts  passed  a  censure  on  Eliot's  "  Christian 
Commonwealth,"  a  treatise  compiled  some  years  before, 
KiOi.  by  that  indefatigable  missionary  as  a  frame  of  govern- 
ment for  his  converted  Indians,  but  which,  in  his  sim- 
plicity, he  had  lately  allowed  to  bo  printed  in  England 
as  a  jiiod(!l,  in  the  unsettled  slate  of  English  politic,*, 
worthy  to  bo  adopted  for  the  establishment  there  of  a  re- 
publican commonwealth  on  "a  Scripture  platform/' 
Conforming  to  the  necessity  of  the  times,  Eliot  himself 
made  a  public  and  solemn  retraction  of  the  anti-monar- 
chical principles  contained  in  this  book,  and  the  circula- 
ting copies  of  it  wore  ordered  to  be  culled  in  and  destroy  - 

May.  ed.  A  general  thanksgiving  was  also  appointed  in  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  king's  gracious  reception  of  the. 
colony's  address. 

Alarmed  by  repeated  rumors  from  England  of  changes 
intended  to  bo  made,  in   their  government,  the  (Jencral 

June  Court,  at  their  meeting  shortly  after,  judged  it  proper  to 
set  forth,  with  the  assistance  of  the  elders,  a  distinct  dec- 
laration of  what  they  deemed  their  rights  under  the  char- 
ter. This  declaration  claimed  for  the  freemen  power  to 
choose  their  own  governor,  deputy  governor,  magistrates, 
and  representatives  ;  to  prescribe  terms  for  the  admission 
of  additional  freemen  ;  to  sot  up  all  sorts  of  oilioers,  su- 
perior and  inferior,  with  such  powers  and  duties  as  they 
might  appoint ;  to  exercise,  by  their  annually-elected 
magistrates  and  deputies,  all  authority,  legislative,  ex- 
ecutive, and  judicial ;  to  defend  themselves  by  force  of 
arms  against  every  aggression ;  and  to  reject  any  and 
every  imposition  which  they  might  judge  prejudicial  to 
the  colony.  Thi%  statement  of  rights  might  soom  to 
leave  hardly  any  perceptible  power  either  to  Parliament 
or  the  king.  It  accorded,  however,  sufficiently  well  with 
the  practice  of  the  colony  ever  since  its  foundation — a 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.  4fl;{ 

practice  maintained  with  equal  zeal  against  both  royal  «n\i  nu 

Mini   parliiimentary  inlrrfnvmv.  ' 

A  (  length,  after  more  than  a  yearns  delay,  Charles  II.    |  iiii  | 
was  formally  proclaimed  at  Boston,     But  all  disorderly     Aug. 

demonstrations  of  joy  on  tile  oeeaslon  were  slrirlly  pro- 
hibited. Nono  were.  («•  presume  to  ilrinK  the  kind's  health, 
whieh,  the  magistrates  did  not  scruple  to  add,  "  ho  hnlli 
in  mi  espeeial  manner  forbidden  ;"  meaning,  wo  must  sup- 
pose, that  lln-  kin:-  -pake  m  ||i,-ir  laws.  As  if  I"  make 

up  in  words  what  was  wanting  in  suhstanoo,  a  second 
loyal  address,  in  the  extremest  style  of  <  )i  K  nl.il  hyperbole, 
designated  the  king  as  one  "  of  the  gods  among  men." 

A  m\!il  nrdrr  had  amvrd,  Hi.-  n-still  of  .snlicilal  ions 
mad.-,  m  Knghmd,  requiring  the  disoonlinnancc  nt  c,.ipi). 
real  punishments  mllicfcd  on  Quakers;  ami  an  net  was 
Accordingly  passed  suspending  the  persecuting  laws, 

AH  it  still  remained  doubtful  what  the  km-  nn-lif  do,    HW2. 
Iliad  lied,  one  of  th(U()iindfrs  <»f  the  colony,  and  a  mag-      Jun/ 
istra<(i   from  the  beginning,  with  Norton,   thr.    popular 
minister  of  Boston,  were  selected  to  proceed  to 
as  agents,  not,  however,  without  a  «.-, I  <l<-al  ..!  o 

lion,  the  govern"!    and  (lie  deputy  gOVrmor  l.nii.-  av.aiim't 

it.  This  appointment  was  eonsidrn-d  M»  d.-in-ri-ous,  thai 
the  agents  did  not  accept  it  without  requiring  a  ruaiam 

of  iiidriiiiu! y  at/ainst  nny  dama--'  ili«-\  ini;dil  .sii.vtain  by 
detention  or  oiln-rwisr.  A  sum  of  money  to  pay  thru- 
r,\prnsrs  \vas  raised  by  loan.  Thny  wr.re  spt-cially  in- 

struotod,  among  other  things,  to  obtain  leave  to  enact  a 
penal  law  against  Quakers. 

HnidHtroet.nnd  Morton  were  courteously  received  in 
Kngliuid.  But  they  found  affairs  there  in  a  bad  way  for 
the  1'uril.an  inlrrcsl.  Notwil.hslanding  Ihn  part,  takru 
by  the  Presbyterians  in  bringing  bark  UK-  king,  and  tlm 
promises  lie  had  made  (hrm,  Mpiscopnoy  was  altogether 


454          HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  in  the  ascendant.      By  the  Corporation  Act  lately  passed, 
.  all  municipal  magistrates  were  required  to  renounce  the 

1662.  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  and  to  take  the  sacrament 
according  to  the  rites  of  the  Church  of  England.  The 
Act  of  Uniformity  had  restored  the  Liturgy,  the  canons, 
and  the  ceremonials,  replacing  the  Church  of  England 
exactly  as  it  stood  before  the  meeting  of  the  late  Long 
Parliament.  All  clergymen  who  refused  to  conform  were 
to  lose  their  cures.  To  this  pressure  by  far  the  greater 
part  both  of  the  clergy  and  laity  quietly  submitted.  But 
a  considerable  portion  of  these  forced  conformists  still  re- 
tained many  of  their  old  sentiments,  thus  constituting 
the  basis  of  that  Low  Church  party,  or  party  verging  to- 
ward Presbyterianism,  one  of  the  two  great  sections  into 
which  the  Church  of  England  has  ever  since  been  divided. 
Near  two  thousand  clergymen,  however,  headed  by  Owen 
and  Baxter,  rather  than  renounce  Presbyterianism,  suf- 
fered themselves  to  be  driven  from  their  cures.  They 
found  many  adherents  among  the  laity,  especially  the 
traders  and  craftsmen  of  the  towns  and  cities,  and  be- 
came the  fathers  of  that  nonconformist  body  which  has 
constituted  ever  since  an  important  element  in  the  polit- 
ical and  social  system  of  England.  Swept  thus  suddenly 
from  the  headship  of  an  established  church,  these  Pres- 
byterian ministers  had  now  the  mortification  to  find  them- 
selves confounded  with  the  Independents,  Baptists,  Qua- 
kers, and  other  sectaries  whom  they  hated.  Exposed  to 
all  the  old  persecuting  statutes,  now  revived  in  full  force, 
they  were  forbidden  to  preach  without  a  bishop's  license 
and  the  use  of  the  Liturgy,  under  a  penalty  of  three 
months'  imprisonment. 

With  the  late  leaders  of  the  Independents  it  had  gone 
still  harder.  Several  of  them  had  been  already  executed 
for  their  concern  in  the  late  king's  death  Sir  Henry 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.      455 

Vane,  formerly  governor  of  Massachusetts,  and  always  CHAPTER 
a  firm  friend  of  New  England,  presently  suffered  a  sim-          ' 
ilar  fate.     Others  were  concealed  or  in  exile.     The  In-  1662. 
dependents  were   far   before   their   time.     Their    short 
reign  was  over.      The  press,  which  Cromwell  had  left 
free,  was  now  again  subjected  to  a  strict  censorship. 
These  changes  in  the  mother  country  occasioned  some 
emigration  to  New  England,  but  not  to  any  great  ex- 
tent. 

The  Massachusetts  agents  presently  returned,  bearers  Sept. 
of  a  royal  letter,  in  which  the  king  recognized  the  char- 
ter, and  promised  oblivion  of  all  past  offenses.  But  he 
demanded  the  repeal  of  all  laws  inconsistent  with  his 
due  authority  ;  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  royal  person, 
as  formerly  in  use,  but  dropped  since  the  commence- 
ment of  the  late  civil  war  ;  the  administration  of  justice 
in  his  name ;  complete  toleration  for  the  Church  of  En- 
gland ;  the  repeal  of  the  law  which  restricted  the  privi- 
lege of  voting  and  tenure  of  office  to  church  members, 
and  the  substitution  of  a  property  qualification  instead ; 
finally,  the  admission  of  all  persons  of  honest  lives  to  the 
sacraments  of  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper.  Little 
favor  was  shown  for  the  Quakers ;  indeed,  liberty  was 
expressly  given  to  make  a  "sharp  law"  against  them — 
a  permission  eagerly  availed  of  to  revive  the  act  by 
which  vagabond  Quakers  were  ordered  to  be  whipped 
from  town  to  town  out  of  the  jurisdiction ;  those  resi- 
dent in  tl'e  colony  being  subject  to  fines  and  other  heavy 
penalties,  and  liable,  if  they  returned  after  being  once  ex- 
pelled, to  be  treated  as  vagabonds. 

The  claimants  for  toleration,  formerly  suppressed 
with  such  prompt  severity,  were  now  encouraged,  by 
the  king's  demands  in  their  favor,  again  to  raise  their 
heads.  For  the  next  thirty  years  the  people  of  Massa- 


456  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  chusetts  were  divided  into  three  parties.      A  very  de- 

XIV 

cidedT  though  gradually  diminishing  majority,  sustain- 
1662.  ed  with  ardor  the  theocratic  system,  and,  as  essential  to 
it,  entire  independence  of  external  control.  At  the  op- 
posite extreme,  a  party,  small  in  numbers  and  feeble  in 
influence,  advocated  religious  toleration,  at  least  to  a 
limited  extent,  and  equal  civil  rights  for  all  inhabitants. 
They  advocated,  also,  the  supremacy  of  the  crown,  sole 
means  in  that  day  of  curbing  the  theocracy,  and  com- 
pelling it  to  yield  its  monopoly  of  power.  To  this  party 
belonged  the  Episcopalians,  or  those  inclined  to  become 
such,  the  Baptists,  Quakers,  and  other  sectaries,  who 
feared  less  the  authority  of  a  distant  monarch  than  the 
present  rule  of  watchful  and  bitter  spiritual  rivals.  In- 
termediate was  a  third  party,  weak  at  first,  but  daily 
growing  stronger,  and  drawing  to  its  ranks,  one  after 
another,  some  former  zealous  advocates  of  the  exclusive 
system,  convinced  that  theocracy,  in  its  stricter  form, 
was  no  longer  tenable,  and  some  of  them,  perhaps,  begin- 
ning to  be  satisfied  that  it  was  not  desirable.  Among 
the  earliest  of  these  converts  were  Norton  and  Brad- 
street,  the  agents,  who  came  back  from  England  im- 
pressed with  the  necessity  of  yielding.  But  the  avowal 
of  such  sentiments  was  fatal  to  their  popularity  ;  and 
Norton,  accustomed  to  nothing  but  reverence  and  ap- 
plause, finding  himself  now  looked  at  with  distrust,  soon 
died  of  melancholy  and  mortification. 

The  vigor  of  the  theocratic  system,  by  the  operation 
of  internal  causes,  was  already  somewhat  relaxed.  In 
spite  of  the  doctrines  of  total  depravity,  special  grace, 
and  personal  regeneration,  the  influence  of  parental  ten- 
derness had  induced  the  founders  of  the  New  England 
churches  to  extend  from  themselves  to  their  "  infant 
seed"  the  privileges  of  baptism  and  a  partial  church 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.     457 

membership.    Among  these  baptized  children,  now  grown  CHAPTER 
up,  were  many  men  of  property,  reputable  lives,  and  so-  ' 

cial  influence,  who  conformed  strictly  to  all  the  observ-  1662. 
ances  of  the  established  religion,  which  they  had  been 
educated  to  regard  with  profound  veneration,  but  who 
did  not  feel,  and  who  were  too  sincere  and  too  honest  to 
counterfeit  those  spiritual  ecstasies,  that  change  of  heart, 
and  inward  assurance,  in  which,  by  the  creed  of  the 
New  England  churches,  saving  faith  was  supposed  to 
consist.  Lacking  this  essential  qualification,  they  hesi- 
tated to  complete  what  their  fathers  had  begun,  by  ask- 
ing admittance  as  full  church  members  to  the  Lord's 
Supper ;  but  they  insisted,  at  the  same  time,  on  securing 
for  their  children,  also,  the  spiritual  benefits  of  baptism,  « 
and  the  civil  privileges  of  church  membership.  This  de- 
mand, for  some  years  past,  had  been  an  anxious  subject  1657 
of  consideration,  especially  in  Connecticut,  where  the 
churches  were  much  torn  in  pieces  by  it,  so  that  a 
Massachusetts  council  had  to  be  called  in  to  promote  a  1659. 
reconciliation.  About  the  time  of  the  return  of  the 
agents,  a  synod  met  to  take  this  subject  into  considera- 
tion. The  majority  of  the  ministers,  alarmed  at  the  as- 
pect of  things  in  England,  and  always  better  informed 
and  more  liberal  than  the  majority  of  the  church  mem- 
bers, were  willing  to  enlarge  somewhat  the  basis  of  their 
polity.  Under  the  influence  of  Mitchell — who,  having 
arrived  a  boy,  had  been  educated  in  the  colony — suc- 
cessor of  Shepard  as  minister  of  Cambridge,  the  synod 
came  to  a  result  the  same  with  that  agreed  upon  by  a  se- 
lect council  of  Massachusetts  ministers  five  years  before, 
authorizing  what  was  called  the  "  half-way  covenant ;" 
the  admission  to  baptism,  that  is,  of  the  children  of  per- 
sons of  acceptable  character,  who  approved  the  confession 
of  faith,  and  had  themselves  been  baptized  in  infancy, 


458  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  though  not  church  members  in  full  communion.      This 

XIV 

\ result    was    approved    by    the    Massachusetts    General 

1662.  Court.  But  a  large  party,  narrow,  and  stiff,  and  resolute 
in  the  monopoly  of  spiritual  and  civil  privileges,  still  stick- 
led with  great  pertinacity  for  the  old-fashioned  exclusive- 
ness,  so  that  several  of  the  ministers  did  not  dare  carry 
out  in  their  own  parishes  that  result  of  the  synod  which 
they  had  been  active  in  procuring. 

Davenport  and  Chauncey  protested  against  the  half- 
way covenant.  Increase  Mather,  the  young  and  able 
minister  of  the  second  Church  of  Boston,  opposed  at  first 
the  result  of  the  synod ;  but  he  afterward  changed  his 
mind  and  gave  it  his  support.  This  question,  which 
continued  for  several  years  a  subject  of  dispute  and  in- 
quietude, gave  occasion  to  several  pamphlets.  The  press 
at  Cambridge  was  kept,  however,  under  a  strict  censor- 
ship, Mitchell  being  one  of  the  censors ;  nor  was  any 
other  press  allowed  to  be  established. 

Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  having  favors  to  ask, 
had  been  more  prompt  than  Massachusetts  to  acknowl- 

1661.  edge  the  authority  of  Charles  II.      Winthrop  for  Con- 
necticut, of  which  colony  he  was  governor,  and  Clarke 
for    Rhode    Island,    presented    themselves   at    Charles's 
court  in  quest  of  charters.      The  season  was  propitious. 
The  Restoration,  at  least  for  the  moment,  was  a  sort  of 
era  of  good  feeling.      Winthrop  might  be  subject  to  sus- 
picion as  the  son-in-law  of  Hugh  Peters ;  but  his  talents, 
his  scientific  acquirements — he  was  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  Royal  Society — and  his  suavity  of  address,  se- 
cured him  many  friends.     The  aged  Lord  Say  introduced 
him  to  some  influential  courtiers,  and  he  seems  to  have 

1662.  encountered   little   difficulty    in    obtaining   the    charter 
April  23.  which  he  sought.      That  instrument,  following  the  terms 

of  the  old  alleged  grant  to  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  estab- 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.  459 

lished  for  the  boundaries  of  Connecticut  the  Narragan-  CHAPTER 

XIV. 

set  River,  the  south  line  of  Massachusetts,  the  shore  of , 

the  Sound,  and  the  Pacific  Ocean.  It  thus  not  only  1662. 
embraced  a  large  part  of  the  continental  portion  of  Rhode 
Island,  but  the  whole  of  New  Haven  also — an  absorp- 
tion about  which  the  inhabitants  of  that  colony  had  not 
been  consulted,  and  with  which,  at  first,  they  were  not 
very  well  satisfied. 

Clarke,  the  Rhode  Island  agent,  found  a  friend  in  Clar- 
endon, the  prime  minister ;  but,  in  the  course  of  his  so- 
licitations, he  was  obliged  to  expend  a  considerable  sum 
of  money,  for  which  he  mortgaged  his  own  house  in  New- 
port, and  which  the  colony  was  a  long  time  in  paying 
back.  He  encountered,  also,  obstruction  In  the  fact 
that  the  greater  part  of  Providence  Plantation  had  just 
been  included  in  the  charter  of  Connecticut.  An  agree- 
ment, presently  entered  into  between  Clarke  and  Win- 
throp,  fixed  for  the  limit  between  the  two  colonies  the 
Pawcatuck,  declared  to  be  the  Narraganset  River  men- 
tioned in  the  Connecticut  charter ;  and  this  agreement 
was  specially  set  forth  in  the  charter  of  RHODE  ISLAND  1663. 
AND  PROVIDENCE  PLANTATIONS.  y  ' 

The  charters  thus  granted  vested  in  the  proprietary 
freemen  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  the  right  of 
admitting  new  associates,  and  of  choosing  annually  from 
among  themselves  a  governor,  magistrates,  and  repre- 
sentatives, with  powers  of  legislation  and  judicial  au- 
thority. No  appellate  jurisdiction  and  no  negative  on  the 
laws  were  reserved  to  the  crown  any  more  than  in  the 
charters  of  Massachusetts,  Maryland,  and  Carolina  ;  but 
all  enactments,  as  in  the  other  plantations,  were  to  con- 
form, as  near  as  might  be,  to  the  laws  of  England.  Ex- 
cept this  authority  of  English  law,  allegiance  to  the  crown, 
and  the  superintending  power  of  Parliament,  whatever 


460  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  that  mio-ht  be,  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  were  self- 

XIV 

.  governed  ;  so  much  so,  that  these  same  royal  charters 

1663.  remained  the  basis  of  their  polity  long  after  they  became 
independent  states. 

Historians  have  expressed  surprise  that,  under  the 
reign  of  Charles  II.,  charters  so  democratic  should  have 
been  granted.  But,  in  a  legal  point  of  view,  in  the  grant 
by  the  crown  of  independent  jurisdiction,  they  did  not 
differ  from  the  other  charters  hitherto  granted  for  plant- 
ations in  America.  The  only  difference  was  in  vesting 
that  jurisdiction  in  a  corporation  of  resident  freemen,  in- 
stead of  an  English  corporation  or  a  single  proprietor, 
with  or  without  a  local  assembly.  The  dispute  with 
Massachusetts  was  still  in  embryo.  The  inconveniences 
of  such  independent  governments  had  not  yet  attracted 
attention.  Twenty  years  after,  when  Penn 'obtained  the 
grant  of  Pennsylvania,  intervening  experience,  as  we  shall 
presently  see,  caused  the  insertion  into  his  charter  of  sev- 
eral additional  safeguards  for  metropolitan  authority. 

The  inhabitants  of  Rhode  Island  still  adhered  to  the 
great  principle  of  which  Roger  Williams  had  been  so  con- 
spicuous an  advocate,  not  of  toleration  merely,  but  of  re- 
ligious freedom  and  equality.  "It  is  much  in  our  hearts 
to  hold  forth  a  lively  experiment,  that  a  most  flourishing 
civil  state  may  stand,  and  best  be  maintained,  with  a  full 
liberty  of  religious  concernments  ;"  so  they  stated  in  their 
petition  for  a  charter ;  and  the  charter  itself  provided 
"  that  no  person  within  the  said  colony  shall  be  molest- 
ed, punished,  disquieted,  or  called  in  question  for  any 
differences  of  opinion  in  matters  of  religion  who  does  not 
actually  disturb  the  civil  peace ;  but  that  all  and  every 
person  and  persons  may  at  all  times  freely  and  fully  have 
and  enjoy  his  and  their  own  judgments  and  consciences 
in  matters  of  religious  concernments,  they  behaving 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.      4  Q  ] 

themselves  peaceably  and  quietly,   and  not   using  this  CHAPTER 

liberty  to  licentiousness  and  profaneness,  nor  to  the  civil 

injury  and  outward  disturbance  of  others."  1663. 

It  does  not  appear  that  the  people  of  Rhode  Island 
either  desired  to  insert,  or  were  anxious  to  enforce  the 
dangerous  and  inconsistent  proviso  about  licentiousness 
and  profaneness — quite  sufficient,  indeed,  to  defeat  the 
whole  prior  grant,  since  it  is  only  under  one  or  the  other 
of  these  pretenses  that  opinions  have  any  where  been 
persecuted.  Yet  how  difficult  it  is  to  act  up  to  a  prin- 
ciple in  the  face  of  prevailing  prejudice  and  opposing  ex- 
ample !  The  Rhode  Island  laws  as  first  printed,  many 
years  posterior  to  the  charter,  contain  an  express  exclu- 
sion from  the  privileges  of  freemen  of  Roman  Catholics, 
and  all  persons  not  professing  Christianity.  These  laws 
had  undergone  repeated  revisals,  and  it  is  now  impos- 
sible to  tell  when  these  restrictions  were  first  introduced, 
though  probably  not  till  after  the  English  revolution  of 
1688.  Statutes  were  also  enacted  in  Rhode  Island,  as 
in  the  other  colonies,  prohibiting  labor  or  amusements  on 
Sundays.  However  open  to  cavil,  yet  these  laws  do  not 
materially  diminish  the  credit  of  Rhode  Island  as  pioneer 
in  the  cause  of  religious  freedom ;  for  in  which  of  our 
statute-books,  even  -at  this  very  day,  are  not  similar  in- 
consistencies to  be  found  ? 

The  privileges  of  freemen  were  restricted  in  Rhode 
Island,  by  act  of  the  colonial  assembly,  to  freeholders  and 
their  eldest  sons.  For  the  long  period  that  Rhode  Isl- 
and remained  chiefly  an  agricultural  community,  this 
limitation  was  hardly  felt  as  a  grievance.  Very  lately, 
in  our  day,  amid  a  manufacturing  population,  it  excit- 
ed serious  discontents,  occasioning,  almost  a  civil  war, 
only  appeased  by  the  adoption  of  a  more  liberal  provision. 
The  qualifications  required  of  freemen  in  Connecticut 


462  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  were   not   materially  different.      The   right  to   become 
such  was  secured  to  all  inhabitants  of  "  civil,  peaceable, 

1663.  and  honest  conversation,"  possessing  £20  estate,  about 
$66,   "  besides  their  persons,"  which,  by  a  subsequent 
act,  was  explained  to  mean  besides  personal  property. 

This  preference  of  a  property  qualification  instead  of 
the  spiritual  one  of  church  membership,  and  the  known 
inclination  of  Connecticut  toward  the  half-way  covenant, 
were  reasons,  among  others,  of  the  unwillingness  of  New 
Haven  to  coalesce  under  the  new  charter.  The  New 
Sent.  Haven  people  appealed  to  the  Commissioners  for  the 
United  Colonies  of  New  England  against  this  invasion 
of  their  independence  on  the  part  of  Connecticut.  But 
the  advice  of  that  body ;  the  alarm  occasioned,  the  next 
year,  by  the  grant  of  New  York,  which  extended  as  far 
east  as  Connecticut  River,  and  threatened  thus  to  ab- 
sorb New  Haven  under  a  far  less  congenial  jurisdiction  ; 
more  than  all,  Winthrop's  prudent  and  conciliatory  meas- 

1664.  ures,  at  length  consolidated  the  new  colony,  of  which  for 
the  next  twelve  years  he  was  annually  chosen  govern6r. 
The  office  of  deputy  governor,  at  first  bestowed  on  Ma- 
son, for  several  years  before  deputy  governor  of  Connecti- 
cut and  acting  governor  in  Winthrop's  absence,  was  after- 

1667.  ward  given  to  William  Leet,  of  New  Haven,  one  of  the 
original  planters  of  that  colony,  its  last  governor,  and, 
after  Winthrop's  death,  his  successor  as  governor  of  the 
united  colony.  Connecticut,  thus  consolidated,  contain- 
ed nineteen  towns,  distributed  into  four  counties :  New 
Haven,  Hartford,  Middlesex,  and  New  London.  A  su- 
perior court  of  law  and  county  courts  were  established. 
The  peculiar  usages  of  New  Haven  being  abandoned,  the 
laws  of  Connecticut  were  extended  to  the  whole  prov- 
ince. The  theocratic  system  of  New  Haven  thus  lost  its 
legal  establishment,  but  the  administration  of  the  entire 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.     453 

colony  was  long  greatly  influenced  by  theocratic  ideas.  CHAPTER 

The  ministers  and  churches,  upheld  by  taxes  levied  on 

the  whole  population,  retained  for  many  years  a  pre-  1663 
dominating  and  almost  unlimited  authority.  No  other 
assemblies  for  public  worship  were  tolerated.  The  town 
meetingSj  as  in  the  rest  of  New  England,  were  held  in 
the  meeting-houses,  which  were,  indeed,  the  only  public 
buildings.  The  ministers,  who  were  always  present, 
opened  these  meetings  with  prayer,  and  their  influence, 
in  all  doubtful  cases,  was  almost  always  decisive  of  the 
result. 

New  Haven  thus  absorbed  into  Connecticut,  the  new 
province  sent  henceforward  but  two  representatives  to 
the  meeting  of  Commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies  of 
New  England.  The  political  consequence  of  that  board 
was,  however,  terminated.  The  superintendence  of  the 
Indian  missions,  and  the  disbursement  of  the  funds  re- 
mitted from  England  for  that  purpose,  became  henceforth 
its  chief  business.  The  meetings  became  triennial,  and 
soon  entirely  ceased.  An  attempt  had  been  made  at  the 
Restoration  to  strip  of  its  property  the  English  corpora- 
tion for  the  conversion  of  the  Indians,  on  the  ground  that 
its  creation  had  been  irregular  and  illegal.  It  was  res- 
cued, however,  by  the  efforts  of  Ashurst  and  Baxter,  but 
particularly  of  Robert  Boyle,  distinguished  among  the 
founders  of  natural  science  in  England.  The  king  grant- 
ed a  new  charter,  thus  confirming  a  decree  which  Claren- 
don, in  his  character  of  chancellor,  had  made  in  favor  of 
the  old  corporation. 

While  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  were  rejoicing 
in  their  charters,  Massachusetts  remained  uneasy  and  sus- 
picious. An  evasive  answer  had  been  returned  to  the 
royal  letter.  The  only  concession  actually  made  was 
the  administration  of  justice  in  the  king's  name.  Mean- 


464  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  while,  complaints  against  the  colony  were  multiplying. 
'      Gorges  and  Mason,  grandsons  of  the  grantees  of  Maine 

1663.  and  New  Hampshire,  alleged  that  Massachusetts  had  oc- 
cupied their  provinces.      Gorton  and  other  inhabitants 
of  Rhode  Island  preferred  the  claim  formerly  pending  be- 
fore Cromwell,  for  damages  sustained  by  the  seizure  of 
their  goods  and  cattle  at  the  time  of  their  arrest  and 
trial.     Wrongs  and  encroachments  were  also  alleged  by 
the  chiefs  of  the  Narragansets,  who  prayed  the  king's 
interference  and  protection.      Controversies  had  arisen  as 
to  the  boundaries  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  on  the 
one  side,  and  of  Rhode  Island  and  Plymouth  colony  on 
the  other,  and  as  to  the  title  to  lands  in  that  vicinity  un- 

1664.  der  purchases  from  the  Indians.      The  king  presently  sig- 
nified his  intention  to  send  out  commissioners  for  hearing 
and  determining  all  these  matters — a  piece  of  informa- 
tion which  occasioned  no  little  alarm  in  Massachusetts, 
aggravated  by  the  appearance  of  a  large  comet.     A  fast 
was  proclaimed.     The  charter  was  intrusted  to  a  select 
committee  of  the  General  Court  for  safe  keeping. 

The  commissioners  selected  by  the  king  were  those  al- 
ready mentioned  in  a  previous  chapter,  Nichols,  Carr,  and 
Cartwright,  sent  with  a  small  armament  to  take  posses- 
sion of  New  Netherland,  to  whom  was  added  Samuel 
Maverick,  a  resident  of  Massachusetts,  son  of  the  first 
minister  of  Dorchester,  and  the  more  obnoxious  on  that 
Aug.  account,  being  regarded  as  a  traitor.  The  arrival  of  the 
commissioners  at  Boston,  and  their  first  intercourse  with 
the  magistrates,  has  been  adverted  to  already  in  the  his- 
tory of  New  Netherland.  The  magistrates  declared  them- 
selves unauthorized  to  raise  troops  for  the  expedition 
thither  without  the  consent  of  the  General  Court.  The 
commissioners  declined  to  await  the  meeting  of  that 
body,  and  departed,  advising  the  magistrates  against 


NEW    ENGLAND   UNDER  CHARLES  II.  455 

their  return  to  take  the  king's  letter  into  serious  consid-  CHAPTER 

XIV. 

eration.  

The  court,  which  presently  met,  voted  two  hundred  1664, 
soldiers;  but  they  were  not  needed,  New  Netherland  SePt 
having  already  submitted.  As  one  step  toward  com- 
pliance with  the  king's  demands,  it  was  enacted,  that 
all  freeholders  twenty-four  years  of  age,  "  rated  at  ten 
shillings  to  a  single  rate,"  and  certified  by  the  minister 
of  their  town  to  be  "  orthodox  in  their  principles,"  and 
"  not  vicious  in  their  lives,"  might  be  admitted  freemen, 
though  not  church  members.  However  useful  in  con- 
ciliating some  of  the  more  wealthy  and  well-disposed 
among  the  hitherto  non-freemen,  this  law  made  no  sub- 
stantial change  in  the  elective  franchise.  Comparatively 
few  possessed  the  requisite  amount  of  property,  and  the 
required  certificate  could  only  be  obtained  by  those 
known  to  be  thoroughly  well  affected.  The  court,  at 
the  same  time,  voted  a  remonstrance  to  the  king  against 
the  appointment  of  the  commissioners,  as  being  a  viola- 
tion of  their  chartered  rights ;  and  they  made  an  order* 
prohibiting  any  appeals  to  their  authority  or  exercise  of 
it  within  the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts. 

The  people  of  Connecticut,  well  satisfied  at  the  sub- 
jection of  the  Dutch,  with  whom  they  had  been  in  such 
constant  collision,  and  having  boundary  questions  to  set- 
tle both  on  the  east  and  west,  received  the  king's  com- 
missioners with  all  respect.  Governor  Winthrop,  as  we 
have  seen  in  a  former  chapter,  accompanied  them  to  the 
conquest  of  New  Netherland.  After  settling  the  bound- 
aries of  Connecticut  and  New  York,  of  which  the  par- 
ticulars will  be  stated  hereafter,  and  leaving  Nichols  at 
New  York  as  governor,  Carr  and  Cartwright  proceeded  Dec. 
to  Massachusetts  to  meet  Maverick. 

The  hopes  of  the  sectaries  in  that  colony  had  been  so 
I.  G  G 


466  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  far  raised,  that  Thomas  Gould,  with  eight  others,  after 
'     meeting  for  some  time  in  secret,  had  formally  organized 

1664.  a  Baptist  Church  in  Boston.      Prosecutions  were  corn- 
May  28.  menced  against  its  prominent  members,  who  were  first 

admonished,  then  fined  for  absence  from  public  worship, 
then  disfranchised,  imprisoned,  and  presently  banished. 
But  still  the  organization  contrived  to  survive,  the  first 
Baptist  Church  of  Massachusetts.  Still  another  inroad, 
not  less  alarming,  was  now  made  upon  ecclesiastical 
uniformity.  The  commissioners,  on  their  arrival,  caused 
the  English  Church  service  to  be  celebrated  at  Boston — 
the  first  performance  of  that  hated  ceremonial  in  that 
Puritan  town.  Out  of  respect  to  the  inveterate  preju- 
dices of  the  people,  the  surplice  was  not  used.  But  the 
Liturgy  alone  was  sufficiently  distasteful. 

The  remonstrances  of  Massachusetts  against  the  pow- 
ers and  appointment  of  the  commissioners  were  esteemed 
in  England  unreasonable  and  groundless.  Clarendon 
and  others,  to  whom  the  magistrates  had  written,  justi- 
fied the  commission,  and  recommended  submission  to  it. 
Very  little  attention,  however,  was  paid  to  this  advice. 
The  magistrates  were  sturdy  and  unbending :  the  com- 
missioners were  haughty,  overbearing,  and  consequen- 
tial. Both  parties  disliked  and  suspected  each  other ; 
and  the  correspondence  between  them  soon  degenerated 
into  a  bitter  altercation. 

Pending  this  correspondence,  the  commissioners  made 

1665.  a  visit  to  Plymouth  and  Rhode  Island.      The  Plymouth 
people,  anxious  to  obtain  a  charter,  professed  a  willing- 
ness to  comply  with  all  the  king's  demands,  as  expressed 
in   his   letter   to    Massachusetts — demands,    indeed,    to 
which,  according  to  their  account,  their  existing  practice 
in  most  points  conformed.      The  commissioners  settled 
the  boundary  controversy  between  Plymouth  and  Rhode 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.      457 

Island  by  confirming  to  Plymouth  all  such  townships  on  CHAPTER 
'the  Narraganset  waters  as  had  been  granted  and  settled  ______ 

by  that  colony.  They  offered,  also,  their  gratuitous  serv-  1665. 
ices  to  obtain  a  royal  charter  for  Plymouth,  if  the  king 
might  have  the  appointment  of  governor  out  of  two  or 
three  persons  to  be  named  by  the  colonists.  The  Plym- 
outh people,  however,  with  many  thanks,  and  great 
protestations  of  loyalty,  chose  rather  "to  be  as  they 
were." 

What  chiefly  occupied  the  attention  of  the  commis- 
sioners at  this  time  was  the  decision  of  a  complicated 
controversy  as  to  the  jurisdiction  and  property  of  the 
lands  south  of  Providence  and  Warwick,  including  part 
of  the  late  Pequod  country  and  the  whole  district  inhabit- 
ed by  the  Narragansets.  The  Pequod  lands  having  been 
claimed  both  by  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  the 
Commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies  had  assigned  the 
tract  west  of  Mystic  River  to  Connecticut,  and  the  tract  1658. 
east  of  it  to  Massachusetts,  a  partition  never  entirely  pt> 
satisfactory  to  Connecticut.  There  could  be  no  pretense 
that  the  charter  of  Massachusetts  covered  any  part  of 
this  territory,  and  Connecticut  now  claimed,  under  the 
words  of  her  new  charter,  as  far  east  as  Narraganset 
Bay,  notwithstanding  the  express  agreement  of  her  agent, 
as  set  forth  in  the  charter  of  Rhode  Island,  that  the 
Pawcatuck  should  be  esteemed  the  Narraganset  River 
referred  to  in  the  Connecticut  charter.  Another  claim 
was  put  forward  to  the  whole  district  between  Narra- 
ganset Bay  and  the  Connecticut,  on  behalf  of  the  heirs 
of  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton,  under  the  old  grant  made 
to  him  by  the  Council  for  New  England  just  previ- 
ous to  the  surrender  of  the  great  New  England  patent. 
The  property  in  the  lands  was  also  disputed  no  less  than 
the  right  of  jurisdiction.  Humphrey  Atherton,  late  su- 


468  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  perintendent  of  the  Indian  subjects  of  Massachusetts,  had 
___!__  taken  advantage  of  his  official  position  to  obtain  from' 
1665.  the  Indians  sundry  large  grants  of  land.     The  Commis- 
sioners for  the  United  Colonies  of  New  England,  some 
five  years  before,  had  imposed  on  the  Niantics,  on  fhe 
ground  of  their  non-fulfillment  of  the  treaty  made  with 
Major  Willard,  a  fine  of  six  hundred  fathoms  of  wam- 
1660.  pum,  and  an  armed  force  had  compelled  the  chiefs  to 
Sept.  29.  mortgage  their  whole  territory  for  its  payment.     Ather- 
Oct.  13.  ton,  with  some  associates,  had  advanced  the  means  to  the 
1662.  Indians  to  pay  off  this  mortgage,  upon  security,  howev- 
er, of  another,  under  which  the  mortgagees  had  already 
taken  possession.      But  all  these  purchases  were  held 
void  by  Rhode  Island,  as  having  been  made  within  her 
jurisdiction,  but  without  her  authority,  and  in  contraven- 
tion of  her  laws.     The  Narragansets,  seeing  themselves 
in  danger  of  being  stripped  of  their  lands,  had  carried 
their  complaints  to  the  king.     Pessacus  required,  in  par- 
ticular, that  no  strong  liquors  might  be  sold  to  his  people. 
After  hearing  the  parties,  the  commissioners  directed 
that  the  territory  in  dispute,  including  the  whole  Narra- 
ganset  country,  should  constitute,  under  the  name  of 
KING'S  PROVINCE,  a  separate  district.     The  purchases  and 
mortgage  of  Atherton,  then  in  the  hands  of  a  company 
of  Boston  land  speculators,  were  declared  void,  but  the 
Indians  were  to  pay  back  what  they  had  received.     This 
decision,  however,  did  not  end  the  matter.     It  was  held 
invalid  because  it  wanted  the  signature  of  Nichols,  whose 
participation  was  essential  to  all  decisions  of  the  com- 
missioners.    Disputes,  both  as  to  jurisdiction  and  land 
titles,  presently  revived,  and  were  carried  on  for  the  next 
fifty  years  with  an  acrimony  which  created  much  ill  will 
between  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  and  the  members  of 
the  Atherton  Land  Company. 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.  4^9 

The  first  governor  of  Rhode  Island  under  the  new  CHAPTER 

XIV. 

charter  was  Benedict  Arnold,  the  former  opponent  of , 

Gorton.      Succeeded  in  1666  by  William  Brenton,  he  1665. 
was  re-elected  in  1669,  and  continued  in  office  till  1672, 
when  Nicholas  Easton  was  chosen.     All  three  had  been 
presidents  under  the  first  charter. 

The  commissioners,  on  their  return  to  Boston,  unable, 
after  a  protracted  correspondence,  to  come  to  any  under- 
standing with  the  magistrates,  proposed,  at  length,  to  sit 
in  form,  for  the  purpose  of  hearing  complaints  against 
the  colony,  of  which  no  less  than  thirty  had  been  ex- 
hibited.     The  General  Court,  by  public  proclamation,  . 
at  the  sound  of  the  trumpet,  prohibited  any  such  pro- 
cedure, as  contrary  to  their  charter,  and  invasive  of  their 
exclusive  jurisdiction  within  the  limits  of  Massachusetts. 
Thus  met,  and  without  a  military  force,  or  any  means 
to  support  their  authority,  the  commissioners  were  obliged 
to  forego  their  intentions.     They  presently  left  Boston, 
and  proceeded  to  New  Hampshire  and  Maine,  where  they 
decided  in  favor  of  the  claims  of  Mason  and  Gorges.     But 
the  New  Hampshire  towns,  satisfied  with  the  rule  of 
Massachusetts,  and  afraid  of  Mason's  pretensions  to  quit- 
rents,   did   not   favor   the   plans   of  the   commissioners. 
More  successful  in  Maine,  where  they  were  supported  by 
the  old  Episcopal  party,  they  issued  commissions  for  a    June. 
new  government,  which  was  accordingly  organized.     On 
their  return  to  Boston,  the  magistrates  complained  that     Oct. 
they  had  disturbed  the  peace  of  Maine,  and  requested  an 
interview.      The  commissioners  refused  with  much  as- 
perity, accusing  the  magistrates  of  treason,  and  threat- 
ening them  with  the  king's  vengeance. 

The  commissioners  were  accustomed  to  hold  of  Satur- 
day nights  a  social  party  at  a  tavern  in  Ann-street,  kept 
by  one  Robert  Vyal,  vintner.  This  was  contrary  to  the 


470  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  law,  which  required  the  strict  observance  of  Saturday 
'  night  as  a  part  of  the  Lord's  day.  A  constable  went 
1666.  to  break  them  up,  but  was  beaten  and  driven  off  by  Sir 
Jan.  is.  Robert  Carr  and  his  servant.  Mason,  another  constable, 
bolder  and  more  zealous,  immediately  proceeded  to  Vyal's 
tavern ;  but,  meanwhile,  the  party  had  adjourned  to  the 
house  of  a  merchant  over  the  way.  Mason  went  in,  staff 
in  hand,  and  reproached  them,  king's  officers  as  they  were, 
who  ought  to  set  a  better  example,  for  being  so  uncivil  as 
to  beat  a  constable ;  telling  them  it  was  well  they  had 
changed  their  quarters,  as  otherwise  he  should  have  ar- 
rested them  all.  "  What,"  said  Carr,  "  arrest  the  king's 
commissioners  !"  "  Yes,"  answered  Mason,  "  the  king 
himself,  had  he  been  there."  "  Treason !  treason !" 
shouted  Maverick  ;  "  knave,  thou  shalt  presently  hang 
for  this  !"  And  he  called  on  the  company  to  take  notice 
of  the  words. 

The  next  day  Maverick  sent  a  letter  to  the  governor, 
accusing  the  constable  of  treason.  The  governor  also 
sent  a  polite  note  to  Carr,  informing  him  of  a  complaint 
for  assault  and  battery  lodged  against  him  by,  the  consta- 
ble he  had  beaten.  What  was  done  in  that  case  does  not 
appear ;  but  Mason  being  bound  over  to  the  next  court, 
the  grand  jury  found  a  bill  against  him.  Maverick,  how- 
ever, declined  to  prosecute,  declaring  his  belief  that  the 
man  had  spoken  inconsiderately,  intending  no  harm. 
The  magistrates  thought  the  matter  too  serious  to  be 
dropped  in  that  way.  They  did  not  choose  to  expose 
themselves  to  the  charge  of  winking  at  treason.  The 
matter  finally  came  before  the  General  Court,  where 
Mason  was  acquitted  of  the  more  serious  charge,  but  was 
fined  for  insolence  and  indiscretion,  principally,  no  doubt, 
through  apprehension  lest  some  handle  might  be  made  of 
the  matter  by  the  commissioners. 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.      47^ 

Having  transmitted  to  England  the  results  of  their  CHAPTER 

labors,  the  commissioners  presently  received  letters  of 

recall,  approving  their  conduct,  and  that  of  all  the  colo-  1666. 
nies  except  Massachusetts.  That  province  was  ordered 
by  the  king  to  appoint  "  five  able  and  meet  persons  to 
make  answer  for  refusing  the  jurisdiction  of  his  commis- 
sioners." Bellingham,  governor  since  Endicott's  death 
the  year  before,  and  Hathorne,  late  speaker  of  the  dep- 
uties, but  now  a  magistrate,  both  of  whom  had  taken  a 
very  active  part  in  opposition,  were  specially  summon- 
ed, on  their  allegiance,  to  appear  personally,  as  two  of 
the  number. 

This  demand,  transmitted  through  Maverick,  who 
sent  .a  copy  of  the  royal  letter  to  the  magistrates,  occa- 
sioned no  little  alarm.  The  General  Court  was  called 
together  in  special  session.  Petitions  came  in  from  Sept. 
Boston,  Ipswich,  and  other  towns,  urging  compliance. 
After  a  forenoon  spent  in  prayer  by  six  ministers,  a 
consultation  with  the  elders,  and  a  warm  debate,  the 
petitioners  were  censured  for  their  unnecessary  inter- 
ference, and  a  short  address  to  the  king  was  agreed 
to,  of  which  the  principal  object  seemed  to  be  to  excuse 
themselves  from  an  invasion  of  Canada,  which  the  king 
had  recommended  in  a  former  letter  of  notice  that  the 
French  had  joined  the  Dutch  in  the  war  against  him. 
Some  loss,  as  they  informed  his  majesty,  they  had 
suffered  already  from  privateers,  but  they  had  taken 
measures  to  protect  themselves  for  the  future.  They 
do,  indeed,  mention,  in  a  cursory  manner,  another  pa- 
per, purporting  to  be  an  order  from  his  majesty,  but  of 
the  authenticity  of  which,  as  it  lacked  the  customary 
seal  and  signature,  they  profess  to  have  some  doubts. 
From  sending  over  agents,  as  that  paper  required,  they 
excused  themselves  on  the  ground  that  no  agents  they 


472  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  could  send  could  make  their  case  any  plainer.      «  Pros- 

"Vfy 

trate  before  his  majesty,"  they  beseech  him  "  to  be 

1666.  graciously  pleased  to  rest  assured  of  their  loyalty  ac- 
cording to  their  former  professions."  At  the  same  time 
they  sent  a  present  of  masts  for  the  royal  navy,  and  a 
contribution  of  provisions  for  the  English  fleet  in  the 
West  Indies — seasonable  supplies,  which  were  gracious- 
ly acknowledged.  This  bold  step  of  disobeying  the 
king's  special  orders  was  not  taken,  however,  without 
great  opposition.  Bradstreet  and  Denison,  both  sons-in- 
law  of  the  late  Governor  Dudley,  insisted  strongly  on 
the  duty  as  well  as  the  expediency  of  obedience.  The 
Boston  merchants,  greatly  alarmed  lest  their  ships  should 
be  seized  in  England,  refused  to  advance  the  £,1000 
voted  by  the  court  to  purchase  the  presents  for  the  king 
unless  agents  were  also  appointed.  But,  in  spite  of  op- 
position, the  original  determination  was  adhered  to. 

The  oversight  of  the  affairs  of  the  colonies  had  been  in- 
trusted, subsequently  to  the  Restoration,  to  a  committee 
of  the  Privy  Council,  specially  appointed  for  that  pur- 
pose, whose  principal  business  it  seems  to  have  been  to 
discover  ways  and  means  of  rendering  the  colonies  more 
dependent  on  the  royal  authority,  and  more  and  more 
subservient  to  a  jealous  and  narrow  view  of  the  commer- 
cial interests  of  the  mother  country.  But  the  trade  of 
Massachusetts  had  not  yet  become  an  object  of  jealousy, 
and  the  king  was  left  to  manage  the  controversy  with 
little  or  no  sympathy  from  the  nation. 

Circumstances  at  the  moment  favored  the  theocracy. 
Charles  at  this  time  was  very  hard  pressed.  The  Dutch 
war  gave  the  king's  ministers  full  employment.  A 
Dutch  fleet  presently  sailed  up  the  Thames,  and  threat- 
ened London,  already  lavaged  by  the  plague  and  the 
great  fire.  The  English  government  was  too  busy  with 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.      473 

affairs  at  home  to  give  much  attention  to  the  colonies,  CHAPTER 
and  for  the  present  the  obstinacy  of  Massachusetts  went          ' 
unnoticed  and  unpunished.      The  king  and  his  council  1666. 
hardly  knew  what  to  do.     Very  exaggerated  notions  pre- 
vailed in  England  as  to  the  power  and  population  of 
Massachusetts ;  nor  was  aid  to  be  expected  from  Parlia- 
ment in  a  quarrel  with  a  distant  colony  merely  as  to  the 
extent  of  the  royal  prerogative. 

As  yet  the  acts  of  trade  were  hardly  a  subject  of  con- 
troversy. The  Parliament,  which  had  welcomed  back 
the  king,  had  indeed  re-enacted,  with  additional  clauses,  1660. 
the  ordinance  of  1651 ;  an  act  which,  by  restricting  ex- 
portations  from  America  to  English,  Irish,  and  colonial 
vessels,  substantially  excluded  foreign  ships  from  all  An- 
glo-American harbors.  To  this,  which  might  be  regard- 
ed as  a  benefit  by  the  New  England  ship-owners,  a  pro- 
vision was  added,  intended  still  further  to  isolate  the  col- 
onies, the  more  valuable  colonial  staples,  mentioned  by 
name  and  hence  known  as  "  enumerated  articles,"  being 
required  to  be  shipped  exclusively  to  England,  or  some 
English  colony.  The  exportation  to  the  colonies  was 
also  prohibited  of  any  product  of  Europe,  unless  in  En- 
glish vessels  and  from  England,  except  horses,  serv- 
ants, and  provisions  from  Ireland  and  Scotland.  But  of 
the  "  enumerated  articles,"  none  were  produced  in  New 
England ;  while  salt  for  the  fisheries,  and  wine  from  1663 
Madeira  and  the  Azores,  branches  of  foreign  trade  in 
which  New  England  was  deeply  interested,  were  spe- 
cially exempted  from  the  operation  of  an  act  which  had 
chiefly  in  view  the  more  southern  colonies,  and  as  to 
which  it  was  even  doubted  whether  Ne<v  England  was 
at  all  bound  by  it. 

Shortly  after  the  departure  of  the  roya    commission-  1668. 
ers,  Leverett,  now  major  general  of  the  colony,  was  sent 
to  Maine,  with  three  other  magistrates,  and  a  body  of 


474  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  horse,   to  re-establish   the   authority  of  Massachusetts. 

XIV 

'     In  spite  of  the  remonstrances  of  Nichols  at  New  York, 

1668.  the  new  government  lately  set  up  was  obliged  to  yield. 
July-     Several  persons  were  punished  for  speaking  irreverently 

of  the  re-established  authority  of  Massachusetts. 

Though  successful  as  yet  against  external  assaults, 
the  Massachusetts  theocracy  was  not  without  internal 
troubles.  The  increase  of  Baptists  occasioned  much 
alarm.  As  persecution  availed  so  little,  it  had  been  re- 
solved to  try  the  force  of  argument.  Six  of  the  chief 
ministers,  aided  by  the  governor  and  magistrates,  held  a 
April  14.  grand  debate  at  Boston  with  the  Baptists  of  that  town, 
assisted  by  a  deputation  of  brethren  from  Newport.  In 
spite  of  the  splendid  victory  which  the  Boston  ministers 
claimed  to  have  achieved,  the  Boston  Baptists  remained 
obstinate  ;  the  heresy  continued  to  spread  ;  and  recourse 
was  again  had  to  a  strict  execution  of  the  penal  laws. 
The  Baptists,  not  daring  to  assemble  in  the  town,  held 
their  meetings  secretly  on  the  island,  now  East  Boston. 
The  "half- way  covenant"  still  continued,  also,  an  occa- 
sion of  bitter  controversy.  Davenport,  the  spiritual  fa- 
ther of  New  Haven,  was  very  vehement  against  it.  His 
zeal  in  this  matter  gave  great  satisfaction  to  a  majority 
of  the  first  church  of  Boston,  and,  on  Wilson's  death, 
Davenport  was  invited  to  become  their  pastor.  The 
church  at  New  Haven  complained  loudly  at  thus  losing 
their  minister,  while  a  minority  of  the  Boston  Church, 
adherents  of  the  "  half-way  covenant,"  equally  dissatis- 

1669.  fied   with    Davenport's    settlement    there,   seceded    and 
May.     formec[  a  new  church,  known  afterward  as  the   "  Old 

1670.  South."      The  General  Court  of  the  next  year,  in  which 
the  opponents  of  the  "  half-way  covenant"  happened  to 
have  a  majority,  pronounced  this  secession  "  irregular, 

1671.  illegal,  and  disorderly."      At  the  next  election  the  oppo- 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES   II.  475 

site  party  carried  the  day,  and  the  seceders  were  sus-  CHAPTER 

XIV 

tained  in  the  course  they  had  taken.      A  very  warm L_ 

controversy  was  kept  up  for  the  next  fourteen  years,  till  1671. 
increasing  dangers  from  abroad  brought  the  two  churches 
again  into  harmony. 

The  Quakers,  as  yet,  had  abated  nothing  of  their  en- 
thusiastic zeal,  of  which  the  colonists  had  a  new  specimen, 
that  greatly  tried  their  patience,  in  two  young  married 
women,  who  walked  naked  through  the  streets  of  New- 
bury  and  Salem,  in  emulation  of  the  prophet  Ezekiel,  as 
a  sign  of  the  nakedness  of  the  land.  They  were  whipped 
from  town  to  town  out  of  the  colony,  under  the  law  against 
vagabond  Quakers ;  the  young  husband  of  one  of  them 
following  the  cart  to  which  his  wife  was  tied,  and  from 
time  to  time  interposing  his  hat  between  her  naked  and 
bleeding  back  and  the  lash  of  the  executioner.  George 
Fox,  founder  and  apostle  of  the  sect,  in  his  missionary 
travels  through  the  English  colonies,  came  as  far  as  Rhode  1672. 
Island,  but,  more  discreet  than  some  of  his  disciples,  he 
did  not  venture  into  Connecticut  or  Massachusetts. 

The  New  England  theocracy  as  against  Quakerism 
found  an  unexpected  champion  in  Roger  Williams,  who 
denied  the  pretensions  of  the  Quakers  to  spiritual  en- 
lightenment, and  challenged  Fox  himself  to  a  disputa-  July, 
tion.  Before  this  challenge  arrived  Fox  was  gone  ;  but 
it  was  accepted  on  his  behalf  by  three  of  his  chief  disci- 
ples at  Newport,  with  whom  Williams  held  a  three  days'  Aug.  9, 
disputation.  He  came  the  day  before,  in  his  own  boat, 
thirty  miles  from  Providence,  himself,  now  upward  of 
seventy  years  of  age,  acting  as  oarsman.  "  God  gra- 
ciously assisted  me,"  he  writes,  "in  rowing  all  day 
with  my  old  bones,  so  that  I  got  to  Newport  toward  the 
midnight  before  the  morning  appointed."  Williams, 
alone,  had  three  vociferous  champions  against  him. 


476  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  There  was  no  moderator,  and  no  one  was  allowed  to  in- 

XIV 

'      terfere.      The  debate  was  tumultuous,  and  at  the  end  of 
1672.  the  first  day  the  challenger  was  heartily  sick  of  it.      He 
carried  it  through,  however,  for  three  days,  and  then  ad- 
journed for  a  fourth  day  at  Providence.      We  have  an 
account  of  this  disputation  in  "  George  Fox  digged  out 
of  his  Burroughs,"  the  only  one  of  Williams's  writings 
permitted  to  be  published  in  New  England.     It  did  not 
make  its  appearance,  however,  till  four  years  after  the 
dispute.      Fox  published,  in  reply,   "  A  New  England 
Firebrand  quenched."      Neither  of  these  treatises  is  at 
all  remarkable  for  tenderness  of  speech  or  chariness  of 
epithet.      In  spite  of  Williams's  arguments,  the  Quaker 
sect  increased  so  much  in  Rhode  Island,  that  Coddington, 
1675.  now  a  Quaker,  was  presently  elected  governor. 

Meanwhile  the  growing  commerce  of  Boston  began  to 
attract  the  notice  and  envy  of  the  jealous  English  mer- 
chants. Though  the  houses  were  generally  wooden,  and 
the  streets  narrow  and  crooked,  u  with  little  decency  and 
.  no  uniformity,"  that  town,  by  far  the  largest  and  most 
commercial  in  the  colonies,  already  had  a  population  of 
seven  or  eight  thousand;  among  them,  some  merchants 
of  considerable  capital  and  active  enterprise.  New  En- 
gland trading  vessels  frequented  the  Southern  colonies, 
Maryland,  Virginia,  Carolina,  Antigua,  and  Barbadoes, 
which  they  supplied  to  a  great  extent  with  European 
goods,  taking  in  return  tobacco,  sugar,  rum,  and  other 
tropical  products,  which  they  sold  in  Spain,  Italy,  and 
Holland,  along  with  their  own  staples  of  fish  and  staves, 
thus  evading  the  navigation  acts,  and  interfering  with 
that  monopoly  of  colonial  trade  which  the  English  mer- 
1672.  chants  aimed  to  secure.  Hence  a  new  act  of  Parlia- 
ment, imposing  on  the  transit  of  "  enumerated  articles" 
from  colony  to  colony  the  same  duties  payable  on  the 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.  477 

introduction  of  those  articles  into  England.      For  the  CHAPTER 

XIV. 

collection  of  these  duties,  the  same  act  authorized  the ___ 

establishment  of  custom-houses  in  the  colonies,  under  1672. 
the  superintendence  of  the  English  Commissioners  of  the 
Customs.      Such  was  the  origin  of  royal  custom-houses 
in  America,  and  of  commercial  duties  levied  there  by  au- 
thority of  Parliament  and  in  the  name  of  the  king. 

As  these  inter-colonial  duties  were  to  be  levied  at  the 
ports  of  shipment,  and  as  the  "  enumerated  articles,"  to- 
bacco, sugar,  rum,  &o.,  were  the  produce  exclusively  of 
the  Southern  colonies,  there  was  yet  no  occasion  for  royal 
custom-house  officers  in  New  England.  Some  slight 
duties  on  imports,  levied  by  the  colonial  authorities,  were 
too  inconsiderable  to  prove  any  impediment  to  trade. 

A  second  Dutch  war  produced  but  transient  alarm. 
The  Massachusetts  authorities,  in  fact,  took  advantage 
of  it  to  give  a  new  extension  to  their  territory.  A  new 
survey  of  the  Merrimac  had  been  made,  by  which  the  1671. 
northern  boundary  of  Massachusetts  was  carried  two 
leagues  further  north,  being  fixed  at  43°  49'  12"  of  north 
latitude.  According  to  the  calculations  of  the  surveyors, 
it  crossed  the  Sagadahoc  near  where  Bath  now  stands, 
stretching  as  far  eastward  as  the  southwest  point  of  Pe- 
nobscot  Bay,  including  the  Plymouth  settlement  at  Sa- 
gadahoc, the  ancient  colony  of  Pemaquid,  and  other  vil- 
lages on  the  eastern  coasts  and  islands.  A  Dutch  fleet 
having  recaptured  the  ancient  New  Netherland,  the  au- 
thorities of  Massachusetts  were  induced  to  take  advant- 
age of  this  temporary  overthrow  of  the  Duke  of  York's 
government  to  stretch  their  authority  over  the  eastern 
villages  included  in  the  re-survey.  High-sounding  rea- 
sons in  behalf  of  this  annexation  were  not  wanting. 
"  That  the  ways  of  godliness  may  be  encouraged  and  1673. 
vice  corrected,"  the  annexed  territory  was  erected  into  Oct 


478  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  new  county  of  Devonshire.     All  that  now  remained 

XIV 

'     to  the  Duke  of  York  of  his  late  extensive  province  were 
1673.  some  little  hamlets  on  the  west  shore  of  the  Penobscot 
Bay.     But  this  arrangement  was  destined  to  be  very 
short-lived. 

Governor  Bellingham,  who  died  in  office  at  a  patri- 
May.  archal  age,  had  been  succeeded  by  Leverett.  Bradstreet, 
though  a  magistrate  since  the  foundation  of  the  colony, 
was  still  in  disgrace  from  his  attachment  to  a  moderate 
course  of  policy.  Denison,  however,  Bradstreet's  brother- 
in-law,  and,  like  him,  an  adherent  of  the  moderate  par- 
ty, regained  the  office  of  major  general,  to  which  he  had 
been  elected  ten  years  before,  but  had  then  laid  down  to 
make  room  for  Leverett.  The  plantations  were  grad- 
ually extending.  The  future  progress  of  New  England 
in  wealth  and  numbers  was  already  foreseen.  As  yet, 
however,  the  entire  white  population  did  not  exceed  sixty 
thousand,  distributed  along  the  sea-coast  and  the  banks 
of  the  Lower  Connecticut.  Lancaster,  about  forty  miles 
from  Boston,  was  the  frontier  town  of  the  Bay  settle- 
ments ;  Brookfield,  some  thirty  miles  from  the  river,  was 
the  most  eastern  town  of  those  in  the  Connecticut  Val- 
ley. There  intervened  between  these  townships  a  great 
space  of  rugged  country,  wholly  unsettled,  and  occupied 
by  a  few  straggling  Indians. 

Except  in  the  destruction  of  the  Pequods,  the  native 
tribes  of  New  England  had  as  yet  undergone  no  very 
material  diminution.  The  Pocanokets  or  Wampanoags, 
though  somewhat  curtailed  in  their  limits,  still  occu- 
pied the  eastern  shore  of  Narraganset  Bay.  The  Nar- 
ragansets  still  possessed  the  western  shore.  There  were 
several  scattered  tribes  in  various  parts  of  Connecticut ; 
though,  with  the  exception  of  some  small  reservations, 
they  had  already  ceded  all  their  lands.  Uncas,  the  Mo- 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.     479 

began  chief,  was  now  an  old  man.      The  Pawtucket  or  CHAPTER 
Penacook  confederacy  continued  to  occupy  the  falls  of  - 

the  Merrimac  and  the  heads  of  the  Piscataqua.  Their  1673. 
old  sachem,  Passaconaway,  regarded  the  colonists  with 
awe  and  veneration.  In  the  interior  of  Massachusetts 
and  along  the  Connecticut  were  several  other  less  noted 
tribes.  The  Indians  of  Maine  and  the  region  eastward 
possessed  their  ancient  haunts  undisturbed  ;  but  their 
intercourse  was  principally  with  the  French,  to  whom, 
since  the  late  peace  with  France,  Acadie  had  been  again 
yielded  up.  The  New  England  Indians  were  occasion- 
ally annoyed  by  war  parties  of  Mohawks  ;  but,  by  the 
intervention  of  Massachusetts,  a  peace  had  recently  been 
concluded. 

Efforts  for  the  conversion  and  civilization  of  the  In- 
dians were  still  continued  by  Eliot  and  his  coadjutors, 
supported  by  the  funds  of  the  English  society.  In  Mas- 
sachusetts there  were  fourteen  feeble  villages  of  these 
praying  Indians,  and  a  few  more  in  Plymouth  colony. 
The  whole  number  in  New  England  was  about  thirty- 
six  hundred,  but  of  these  near  one  half  inhabited  the 
islands  of  Naritucket  and  Martha's  Vineyard. 

We  have  seen,  in  former  chapters,  the  strict  hand  held 
by  Massachusetts. over  the  Narragansets  and  other  sub- 
ject tribes,  as  well  as  the  contraction  of  their  limits  by 
repeated  cessions,  not  always  entirely  voluntary.  The 
Wampanoags,  within  the  jurisdiction  of  Plymouth,  ex- 
perienced similar  treatment.  By  successive  sales  of  parts 
of  their  territory,  they  were  now  bhut  up,  as  it  were,  in 
the  necks  or  peninsulas  formed  by  the  northern  and 
eastern  branches  of  Narraganset  Bay,  the  same  territory 
now  constituting  the  continental  eastern  portion  of  Rhode 
Island.  Though  always  at  peace  with  the  colonists,  the 
Wampanoags  had  not  always  escaped  suspicion.  The 


480  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


CHAPTER  increase  of  the   settlements   around  them,  and  the  pro- 

XIV 

'  gressive  curtailment  of  their  limits,  aroused  their  jeal- 
1673.  ousy.  They  were  galled,  also,  by  the  feudal  superiori- 
ty, similar  to  that  of  Massachusetts  over  her  dependent 
tribes,  claimed  by  Plymouth  on  the  strength  of  certain 
alleged  former  submissions.  None  felt  this  assumption 
more  keenly  than  Pometacom,  head  chief  of  the  Wam- 
panoags,  better  known  among  the  colonists  as  King  Philip 
of  Mount  Hope,  nephew  and  successor  of  that  Massasoit 
who  had  welcomed  the  Pilgrims  to  Plymouth.  Sus- 

1670.  pected  of  hostile  designs,  he  had  been  compelled  to  de- 
liver up  his  fire-arms,  and  to  enter  into  certain  stipula- 
tions.    These  stipulations  he  was  accused  of  not  fulfill- 
ing ;  and  nothing  but  the  interposition  of  the  Massachu- 
setts magistrates,~to  whom  Philip   appealed,  prevented 

1671.  Plymouth  from  making  war   upon  him.      He  was  sen- 
April  13.  ^enceci  instead  to  pay  a  heavy  fine,  and  to  acknowledge 

the  unconditional  supremacy  of  that  colony. 

A  praying  Indian,  who  had  been  educated  at  Cambridge 
and  employed  as  a  teacher,  upon  some  misdemeanor  had 
fled  to  Philip,  who  took  him  into  service  as  a  sort  of  sec- 
retary. Being  persuaded  to  return  again  to  his  former 
employment,  this  Indian  accused  Philip  anew  of  being 

1675.  engaged  in  a  secret  hostile  plot.  In  accordance  with  In- 
dian ideas,  the  treacherous  informer  was  waylaid  and 
killed.  Three  of  Philip's  men,  suspected  of  having  killed 
him,  were  arrested  by  the  Plymouth  authorities,  and,  in 
accordance  with  English  ideas,  were  tried  for  murder  by 
a  jury  half  English,  half  Indians,  convicted  upon  very 

June  24.  slender  evidence,  and  hanged.  Philip  retaliated  by  plun- 
dering the  houses  nearest  Mount  Hope.  Presently  he 
attacked  Swanzey,  and  killed  several  of  the  inhabitants. 
Plymouth  took  measures  for  raising  a  military  force. 
The  neighboring  colonies  were  sent  to  for  assistance 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER   CHARLES   II.  4gl 

Thus,  by  the  impulse  of  suspicion  on  the  one  side  and  CHAPTER 

XIV 

passion  on  the  other,  New  England  became  suddenly  en- 

gaged  in  a  war  very  disastrous  to  the  colonists,  and  ut-  1675 
terly  ruinous  to  the  native  tribes.  The  lust  of  gain,  in 
spite  of  all  laws  to  prevent  it,  had  partially  furnished  the 
Indians  witfc  fire-arms,  and  they  were  now  far  more  for- 
midable enemies  than  they  had  been  in  the  days  of  the 
Pequods.  Of  this  the  colonists  hardly  seem  to  have 
thought.  Now,  as  then,  confident  of  their  superiority, 
and  comparing  themselves  to  the  Lord's  chosen  people 
driving  the  heathen  out  of  the  land,  they  rushed  eagerly 
into  the  contest,  without  a  single  effort  at  the  preserva- 
tion of  peace.  Indeed,  their  pretensions  hardly  admitted 
of  it.  Philip  was  denounced  as  a  rebel  in  arms  against 
his  lawful  superiors,  with  whom  it  would  be  folly  and 
Weakness  to  treat  on  any  terms  short  of  absolute  sub- 
mission. 

A  body  of  volunteers,  horse  and  foot,  raised  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, marched  under  Major  Savage,  four  days  after  June  28. 
the  attack  on  Swanzey,  to  join  the  Plymouth  forces.  Aft- 
er one  or  two  slight  skirmishes,  they  penetrated  to  the 
Wampanoag  villages  at  Mount  Hope,  but  found  them 
empty  and  deserted.  Philip  and  his  warriors,  conscious 
of  their  inferiority,  had  abandoned  their  homes.  If  the 
Narragansets,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  bay,  did  not 
openly  join  the  Wampanoags,  they  would,  at  least,  be 
likely  to  afford  shelter  to  their  women  and  children.  The 
troops  were  therefore  ordered  into  the  Narraganset  coun- 
try, accompanied  by  commissioners  to  demand  assurances 
of  peaceful  intentions,  and  a  promise  to  deliver  up  all  fu- 
gitive enemies  of  the  colonists — pledges  which  the  Nar- 
ragansets felt  themselves  constrained  to  give. 

Arrived  at  Taunton  on  their  return  from  the  Narra- 
ganset country,  news  carne  that  Philip  and  his  warriors 
I.  H  H 


482  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  had  been  discovered  by  Church,  of  Plymouth  colony,  col- 

XIV 

'      lected  in  a  great  swamp  at  Pocasset,  now  Tiverton,  the 

1675.  southern  district  of  the  Wampanoag  country,  whence 
small  parties  sallied  forth  to  burn  and  plunder  the  neigh- 
boring settlements.  After  a  march  of  eighteen  miles, 

July  16.  having  reached  the  designated  spot,  the  soldiers  found 
there  a  hundred  wigwams  lately  built,  but  empty  and  de- 
serted, the  Indians  having  retired  deep  into  the  swamp. 
The  colonists  followed ;  but  the  ground  was  soft ;  the 
thicket  was  difficult  to  penetrate ;  the  companies  were 
soon  thrown  into  disorder.  Each  man  fired  at  every  bush 
he  saw  shake,  thinking  an  Indian  might  lay  concealed 
behind  it,  and  several  were  thus  wounded  by  their  own 
friends.  When  night  came  on,  the  assailants  retired  with 
the  loss  of  sixteen  men.  The  swamp '  continued  to  be 
watched  and  guarded,  but  Philip  broke  through,  not  with- 
out some  loss,  and  escaped  into  the  country  of  the  Nip- 
mucks,  in  *ihe  interior  of  Massachusetts.  That  tribe  had 

July  24.  already    commenced  hostilities    by   attacking  Mendon. 

Aug.  2.  They  waylaid  and  killed  Captain  Hutchinson,  a  son  of 
the  famous  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and  sixteen  out  of  a  party 
of  twenty  sent  from  Boston  to  Brookfield  to  parley  with 
them.  Attacking  Brookfield  itself,  they  burned  it,  ex- 
cept one  fortified  house.  The  inhabitants  were  saved 
by  Major  Willard,  who,  on  information  of  their  danger, 
came  with  a  troop  of  horse  from  Lancaster,  thirty  miles 
through  the  woods,  to  their  rescue.  A  body  of  troops 
presently  arrived  from  the  eastward,  and  were  stationed 
for  some  time  at  Brookfield. 

The  colonists  now  found  that  by  driving  Philip  to  ex- 
tremity they  had  roused  a  host  of  unexpected  enemies. 
The  River  Indians,  anticipating  an  intended  attack  upon 

Sept.  i.  them,  joined  the  assailants.  Deerfield  and  Northfield, 
the  northernmost  towns  on  the  Connecticut  River,  set- 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.      433 

tied  within  a  few  years  past,  were  attacked,  and  sev-  CHAPTER 
eral  of  the   inhabitants  killed  and  wounded,      nn.pta.in 
Beers,  sent  from  Hadley  to  their  relief  with  a  convoy  of  1675. 
provisions,  was  surprised  near  Northfield  and  slain,  with  SePt  n 
twenty  of  his   men.     Northfield   was    abandoned,   and 
burned  by  the  Indians. 

"  The  English  at  first,"  says  Gookin,  «  thought  easily 
to  chastise  the  insolent  doings  and  murderous  practice 
of  the  heathen  ;  but  it  was  found  another  manner  of  thing 
than  was  expected ;  for  our  men  could  see  no  enemy  to 
shoot  at,  but  yet  felt  their  bullets  out  of  the  thick  bush- 
es where  they  lay  in  ambush.  The  English  wanted  not 
courage  or  resolution,  but  could  not  discover  nor  find  an 
enemy  to  fight  with,  yet  were  galled  by  the  enemy." 
In  the  arts  of  ambush  and  surprise,  with  which  the  In- 
dians were  so  familiar,  the  colonists  were  without  prac- 
tice. It  is  to  the  want  of  this  experience,  purchased  at 
a  very  dear  rate  in*  the  course  of  the  war,  that  we  must 
ascribe  the  numerous  surprises  and  defeats  from  which 
the  colonists  suffered  at  its  commencement. 

Driven  to  the  necessity  of  defensive  warfare,  those  in 
command  on  the  river  determined  to  establish  a  maga- 
zine and  garrison  at  Hadley.  Captain  Lathrop,  who 
had  been  dispatched  from  the  eastward  to  the  assistance 
of  the  river  towns,  was  sent  with  eighty  men,  the  flower 
of  the  youth  of  Essex  county,  to  guard  the  wagons  in- 
tended to  convey  to  Hadley  three  thousand  bushels  of 
unthreshed  wheat,  the  produce  of  the  fertile  Deerfield 
meadows.  Just  before  arriving  at  Deerfield,  near  a  small 
stream  still  known  as  Bloody  Brook,  under  the  shadow 
of  the  abrupt  conical  Sugar  Loaf,  the  southern  termina- 
tion of  the  Deerfield  mountain,  Lathrop  fell  into  an  am-  Sept.  18. 
bush,  and,  after  a  brave  resistance,  perished  there  with 
all  his  company.  Captain  Moseley,  stationed  at  Deer- 


484  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  field,  marched  to  his  assistance,  but  arrived  too  late  to 

XIV. 

'     help  him.      Deerfield  was  abandoned,  and  burned  by  the 
1675.  Indians.      Springfield,  about  the  same  time,  was  set  on 
fire,  but  was  partially  saved  by  the  arrival,  with  troops 
from  Connecticut,  of  Major  Treat,  successor  to  the  late- 
ly-deceased Mason  in  the  chief  command  of  the  Connec- 
Oct.  19.  ticut  forces.     An  attack  on  Hatfield  was  vigorously  re- 
pelled by  the  garrison. 

Meanwhile,  hostilities  were  spreading ;  the  Indians  on 
the  Merrimac  began  to  attack  the  towns  in  their  vicin- 
ity ;  and  the  whole  of  Massachusetts  was  soon  in  the  ut- 
most alarm.  Except  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of 
Boston,  the  country  still  remained  an  immense  forest, 
dotted  by  a  few  openings.  The  frontier  settlements 
could  not  be  defended  against  a  foe  familiar  with  locali- 
ties, scattered  in  small  parties,  skillful  in  concealment, 
and  watching  with  patience  for  some  unguarded  or  fa- 
vorable moment.  Those  settlements  were  mostly  broken 
up,  and  the  inhabitants,  retiring  toward  Boston,  spread 
every  where  dread  and  intense  hatred  of  "  the  bloody 
heathen."  Even  the  praying  Indians,  and  the  small  de- 
pendent and  tributary  tribes,  became  objects  of  suspicion 
and  terror.  They  had  been  employed  at  first  as  scouts 
and  auxiliaries,  and  to  good  advantage  ;  but  some  few, 
less  confirmed  in  the  faith,  having  deserted  to  the  en- 
emy, the  whole  body  of  them  were  denounced  as  traitors. 
Eliot  the  apostle,  and  Gookin,  superintendent  of  the  sub- 
ject Indians,  exposed  themselves  to  insults,  and  even  to 
danger,  by  their  efforts  to  stem  this  headlong  fury,  to 
which  several  of  the  magistrates  opposed  but  a  feeble  re- 
sistance. Troops  were  sent  to  brea*k  up  the  praying 
villages  at  Mendon,  Grafton,  and  others  in  that  quarter. 
The  Natick  Indians,  « those  poor  despised  sheep  of 
Christ/'  as  Gookin  affectionately  calls  them,  were  hur- 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.  435 

ried  off  to  Deer  Island,  in  Boston  harbor,  where  they  CHAPTER 

XIV 

suffered  excessively  from  a  severe  winter.     A  part  of  the      ^ 
praying  Indians  of  Plymouth  colony  were  confined,  in  1675. 
like  manner,  on  the  islands  in  Plymouth  harbor. 

Not  content  with  realities  sufficiently  frightful,  super- 
stition, as  usual,  added  bugbears  of  her  own.  Indian 
bows  were  seen  in  the  sky,  and  scalps  in  the  moon. 
The  northern  lights  became  an  object  of  terror.  Phan- 
tom horsemen  careered  among  the  clouds,  or  were  heard 
to  gallop  invisible  through  the  air.  The  howling  of 
wolves  was  turned  into  a  terrible  omen.  The  war  was 
regarded  as  a  special  judgment  in  punishment  of  prevail- 
ing sins.  Among  these  sins,  the  General  Court  of  Massa-  Oct.  19. 
chusetts,  after  consultation  with  the  elders,  enumerated 
neglect  in  the  training  of  the  children  of  church  mem- 
bers ;  pride,  in  men's  wearing  long  and  curled  hair ;  ex- 
cess in  apparel ;  naked  breasts  and  arms,  and  superfluous 
ribbons ;  the  toleration  of  Quakers ;  hurry  to  leave  meet- 
ing before  blessing  asked  ;  profane  cursing  and  swearing ; 
tippling  houses  ;  want  of  respect  for  parents  ;  idleness  ; 
extortion  in  shop-keepers  and  mechanics ;  and  the  riding 
from  town  to  town  of  unmarried  men  and  women,  under 
pretense  of  attending  lectures — "  a  sinful  custom,  tend- 
ing to  lewdness."  Penalties  were  denounced  against  all 
these  offenses ;  and  the  persecution  of  the  Quakers  was 
again  renewed.  A  Quaker  woman  had  recently  fright- 
ened the  Old  South  congregation  in  Boston  by  entering 
that  meeting-house  clothe^  in  sackcloth,  with  ashes  on 
her  head,  her  feet  bare,  and  her  face  blackened,  intend- 
ing to  personify  the  small-pox,  with  which  she  threat- 
ened the  colony,  in  punishment  for  its  sins. 

About  the  time  of  the  first  collision  with  Philip,  the 
Tarenteens,  or  Eastern  Indians,  had  attacked  the  settle- 
ments in  Maine  and  New  Hampshire,  plundering  and 


486  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  burning  the  houses,  and  massacring  such  of  the  inhab- 
itants as  fell  into  their  hands.  This  sudden  diffusion  of 
1675.  hostilities  and  vigor  of  attack  from  opposite  quarters, 
made  the  colonists  believe  that  Philip  had  long  been  plot- 
ting and  had  gradually  matured  an  extensive  conspiracy, 
into  which  most  of  the  tribes  had  deliberately  entered, 
for  the  extermination  of  the  whites.  This  belief  infuri- 
ated the  colonists,  and  suggested  some  very  questionable 
proceedings.  It  seems,  however,  to  have  originated,  like 
the  war  itself,  from  mere  suspicions.  The  same  griefs 
pressed  upon  all  the  tribes ;  and  the  struggle  once  com- 
menced, the  awe  which  the  colonists  inspired  thrown  off, 
the  greater  part  were  ready  to  join  in  the  contest.  But 
there  is  no  evidence  of  any  deliberate  concert ;  nor,  in 
fact,  were  the  Indians  united.  Had  they  been  so,  the 
war  would  have  been  far  more  serious.  The  Connecti- 
cut tribes  proved  faithful,  and  that  colony  remained  un- 
touched. Uncas  and  Ninigret  continued  friendly  ;  even 
the  Narragansets,  in  spite  of  so  many  former  provo- 
cations, had  not  yet  taken  up  arms.  But  they  were 
strongly  suspected  of  intention  to  do  so,  and  were  ac- 
cused by  Uncas  of  giving,  notwithstanding  their  recent 
assurances,  aid  and  shelter  to  the  hostile  tribes. 

An  attempt  had  lately  been  made  to  revive  the  union 
of  the  New  England  colonies.  At  a  meeting  of  coin- 
Sept.  9  missioners,  those  from  Plymouth  presented  a  narrative  of 
the  origin  and  progress  of  the  present  hostilities.  Upon 
the  strength  of  this  narrative  the  war  was  pronounced 
"just  and  necessary,"  and  a  resolution  was  passed  to  car- 
ry it  on  at  the  joint  expense,  and  to  raise  for  that  purpose 
a  thousand  men,  one  half  to  be  mounted  dragoons.  If 
the  Narragansets  were  not  crushed  during  the  winter,  it 
was  feared  they  might  break  out  openly  hostile  in  the 
spring ;  and  at  a  subsequent  meeting  a  thousand  men 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.     437 

were  ordered  to  be  levied  to  co-operate  in  an  expedition  CHAPTER 

specially  a'gainst  them. 

The  winter  was  unfavorable  to  the  Indians  ;  the  leaf-  1675. 
less  woods  no  longer  concealed  their  lurking  attacks. 
The  frozen  surface  of  the  swamps  made  the  Indian  fast- 
nesses accessible  to  the  colonists.  The  forces  destined 
against  the  Narragansets — six  companies  from  Massa- 
chusetts, under  Major  Appleton ;  two  from  Plymouth, 
under  Major  Bradford ;  and  five  from  Connecticut,  un- 
der Major  Treat — were  placed  under  the  command  of 
Josiah  Winslow,  governor  of  Plymouth  since  Prince's  1672. 
death — son  of  that  Edward  Winslow  so  conspicuous  in 
the  earlier  history  of  the  colony.  The  Massachusetts 
and  Plymouth  forces  marched  to  Petasquamscot,  on  the  1675. 
west  shore  of  Narraganset  Bay,  where  they  made  some  Dec  13' 
forty  prisoners.  Being  joined  by  the  troops  from  Con-  Dec.  18. 
necticut,  and  guided  by  an  Indian  deserter,  after  a  march 
of  fifteen  miles  through  a  deep  snow,  they  approached  a 
swamp  in  what  is  now  the  town  of  South  Kingston,  one 
of  the  ancient  strongholds  of  the  Narragansets.  Driving 
the  Indian  scouts  before  them,  and  penetrating  the  swamp, 
the  colonial  soldiers  soon  came  in  sight  of  the  Indian  fort, 
built  on  a  rising  ground  in  the  morass,  a  sort  of  island  of 
two  or  three  acres,  fortified  by  a  palisade,  and  surrounded 
by  a  close  hedge  a  rod  thick.  There  was  but  one  en- 
trance, quite  narrow,  defended  by  a  tree  thrown  across  it, 
with  a  block-house  of  logs  in  front  and  another  on  the 
flank.  It  was  the  "  Lord's  day,"  but  that  did  not  hinder  Dec.  19. 
the  attack.  As  the  captains  advanced  at  the  heads  of 
their  companies,  the  Indians  opened  a  galling  fire,  under 
which  many  fell.  But  the  assailants  pressed  on,  and 
forced  the  entrance.  A  desperate  struggle  ensued.  The 
colonists  were  once  driven  back,  but  they  rallied  and  re- 
turned  to  the  charge,  and,  after  a  two  hours'  fight,  be- 


488  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  came  masters  of  the  fort.     Fire  was  put  to  the  wigwams, 

XIV 

'     near  six  hundred  in  number,  and  all  the  horrors  of  the 

1675.  Pequod  massacre  were  renewed.      The  corn  and  other 
winter  stores  of  the  Indians  were  consumed,  and  not  a 
few  of  the  old  men,  women,  and  children  perished  in  the 
flames.      In  this  bloody  contest,  long  remembered  as  the 
"  Swamp  Fight,"  the  colonial  loss  was  terribly  severe. 
Six  captains,  with  two  hundred  and  thirty  men,  were 
killed  or  wounded ;   and  at  night,  in  the  midst  of  a  snow 
storm,  with  a  fifteen  miles'  march  before  them,  the  colo- 
nial soldiers  abandoned  the  fort,  of  which  the  Indians  re- 
sumed possession.     But  their  wigwarn,s  were  burned ; 
their  provisions  destroyed  ;  they  had  no  supplies  for  the 
winter ;  their  loss  was  irreparable.      Of  those  who  sur- 
vived the  fight,  many  perished  of  hunger. 

1676.  Even  as  a  question  of  policy,  this  attack  on  the  Nar- 
ragansets  was  more  than  doubtful.     The  starving  and  in- 
furiated warriors,  scattered  through  the  woods,  revenged 
themselves  by  attacks  on  the  frontier  settlements.     Lan- 

Feb.  10.  caster  was  burned,  and  forty  of  the  inhabitants  killed  or 
taken  ;  among  the  rest,  Mrs.  Rolandson,  wife  of  the  min- 
ister, the  narrative  of  whose  captivity  is  still  preserved. 
Groton,  Chelmsford,  and  other  towns  in  that  vicinity 

Feb.  21.  were  repeatedly  attacked.  Medfield,  twenty  miles  from 
Boston,  was  furiously  assaulted,  and,  though  defended  by 
three  hundred  men,  half  the  houses  were  burned.  Wey- 
mouth,  within  eighteen  miles  of  Boston,  was  attacked  a 

Feb.  25.  few  days  after.  These  were  the  nearest  approaches  which 
the  Indians  made  to  that  capital.  For  a  time  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  Narraganset  country  was  abandoned.  The 
Rhode  Island  towns,  though  they  had  no  part  in  under- 
taking the  war,  yet  suffered  the  consequences  of  it.  War- 
March  17.  wick  was  burned,  and  Providence  was  partially  destroyed. 
Most  of  the  inhabitants  sought  refuge  in  the  islands; 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.      439 

but  the  aged  Roger  Williams  accepted  a  commission  as  CHAPTER 

captain  for   the  defense^  of  the  town   he  had  founded. L_ 

Walter  Clarke  was  presently  chosen  governor  in  Codding-  1676. 
ton's  place,  the  times  not  suiting  a  Quaker  chief  magis- 
trate. 

The  whole  colony  of  Plymouth  was  overrun.     Houses 
were  burned  in  almost  every  town  ;  but  the  inhabitants, 
for  the  most  part,  saved  themselves  in  their  garrisons,  a 
shelter  with  which  all  the  towns  now  found  it  necessary 
to   be  provided.      Captain  Pierce,  with   fifty  men   and  March  26. 
some  friendly  Indians,  while  endeavoring  to  cover  the 
Plymouth  towns,  fell  into  an  ambush  and  was  cut  off. 
That  same  day,  Marlborough  was  set  on  fire  ;  two  days  March  28 
after,  Rehoboth  was  burned.      The  Indians  seemed  to  be 
every  where.     Captain  Wadsworth,  marching  to  the  re- 
lief of  Sudbury,  fell  into  an  ambush,  and  perished  with  April  18. 
fifty  men.      The  alarm  and  terror  of  the  colonists  reached 
again  a  great  height.      But  affairs  were  about  to  take  a 
turn.      The  resources  of  the  Indians  were  exhausted ; 
they  were  now  making  their  last  efforts. 

A  body  of  Connecticut  volunteers,  under  Captain  Den- 
ison,  and  of  Mohegan  and  other  friendly  Indians,  Pe- 
quods  and  Niantics,  swept  the  entire  country  of  the  Nar-  March  30 
ragansets,  who  suffered,  as  spring  advanced,  the  last  ex-  April  5 
tremities  of  famine.  Canochet,  the  chief  sachem,  said 
to  have  been  a  son  of  Miantonimoh,  but  probably  his 
nephew,  had  ventured  to  his  old  haunts  to  procure  seed- 
corn  with  which  to  plant  the  rich  intervals  on  the  Con- 
necticut, abandoned  by  the  colonists.  Taken  prisoner, 
he  conducted  himself  with  all  that  haughty  firmness,  es- 
teemed by  the  Indians  the  height  of  magnanimity.  Be- 
ing offered  his  life  on  condition  of  bringing  about  a  peace, 
he  scorned  the  proposal.  His  tribe  would  perish  to  the 
last  man  rather  than  become  servants  to  the  English. 


490  HISTORY   OF    THE   UNITED    STA'TES. 

CHAPTER  When  ordered  to  prepare  for  death,  he  replied,  "  I  like 

XIV 

'     it  well ;  I  shall  die  before  my  |jeart  is  soft,  or  I  shall 

1676.  have  spoken  any  thing  unworthy  of  myself."  Two  In- 
dians were  appointed  to  shoot  him,  and  his  head  was  cut 
off  and  sent  to  Hartford. 

The  colonists  had  suffered  severely.  Men,  women, 
and  children  had  perished  by  the  bullets  of  the  Indians, 
or  fled  naked  through  the  wintery  woods  by  the  light  of 
their  blazing  houses,  leaving  their  goods  and  cattle  a 
spoil  to  the  assailants.  Several  settlements  had  been  de- 
stroyed, and  many  more  had  been  abandoned ;  but  the 
oldest  and  wealthiest  remained  untouched.  The  Indians, 
on  the  other  hand,  had  neither  provisions  nor  ammuni- 
tion. While  attempting  to  plant  corn  and  catch  fish  at 
Montague  Falls,  on  the  Connecticut  River,  they  were  at- 

May  13.  tacked  with  great  slaughter  by  the  garrison  of  the  lower 
towns,  led  by  Captain  Turner,  a  Boston  Baptist,  and  at 
first  refused  a  commission  on  that  account,  but  as  dan- 
ger increased,  pressed  to  accept  it.  Yet  this  enterprise 

May  17.  was  not  without  its  drawbacks.  As  the  troops  returned, 
Captain  Turner  fell  into  an  ambush  and  was  slain,  with 
thirty-eight  men.  Hadley  was  attacked  on  a  lecture 

June  12.  day,  while  the  people  were  at  meeting ;  but  the  Indians 
were  repulsed  by  the  bravery  of  Goffe,  one  of  the  fugitive 
regicides,  long  concealed  in  that  town.  Seeing  this  ven- 
erable unknown  man  come  to  their  rescue,  and  then  sud- 
denly disappear,  the  inhabitants  took  him  for  an  angel. 

Major  Church,  at  the  head  of  a  body  of  two  hundred 
volunteers,  English  and  Indians,  energetically  hunted 
down  the  hostile  bands  in  Plymouth  colony.  The  inte- 
rior tribes  about  Mount  Wachusett  were  invaded  and 
subdued  by  a  force  of  six  hundred  men,  raised  for  that 
purpose.  Many  fled  to  the  north  to  find  refuge  in  Can- 
ada ;  guides  and  leaders,  in  after  years,  of  those  French 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES   II.  49^ 

and  Indian  war  parties  by  which  the  frontiers  of  New  CHAPTER 

XIV 

England  were  so  terribly  harassed.      Just  a  year  after 

the  fast  at  the  commencement  of  the  war,  a  thanksgiv-  1676. 
ing  was  observed  for  success  in  it.  June  29 

No  longer  sheltered  by  the  River  Indians,  who  now  be- 
gan to  make  their  peace,  and  even  attacked  by  bands  of 
the  Mohawks,  Philip  returned  to  his  own  country,  about 
Mount  Hope,  where  he  was  still  faithfully  supported  by 
his  female  confederate  and  relative,  Witamo,  squaw-sa- 
chem of  Pocasset.  Punham,  also,  the  Shawomet  vassal 
of  Massachusetts,  still  zealously  carried  on  the  war,  but 
was  presently  killed.  Philip  was  watched  and  followed 
by  Church,  who  surprised  his  camp,  killed  upward  of  a  Aug.  1. 
hundred  of  his  people,  and  took  prisoners  his  wife  and 
boy.  The  disposal  of  this  child  was  a  subject  of  much 
deliberation.  Several  of  the  elders  were  urgent  for  put- 
ting him  to  death.  It  was  finally  resolved  to  send  him 
to  Bermuda,  to  be  sold  into  slavery — a  fate  to  which 
many  other  of  the  Indian  captives  were  subjected.  Wit- 
amo shared  the  disasters  of  Philip.  Most  of  her  people 
were  killed  or  taken.  She  herself  was  drowned  while  Aug.  6 
crossing  a  river  in  her  flight ;  but  her  body  was  recover- 
ed, and  the  head,  cut  off,  was  stuck  upon  a  pole  at  Taun- 
ton,  amid  the  jeers  and  scoffs  of  the  colonial  soldiers,  and 
the  tears  and  lamentations  of  the  Indian  prisoners. 

Philip  still  lurked  in  the  swamps,  but  was  now  .re- 
duced to  extremity.  Again  attacked  by  Church,  he  was 
killed  by  one  of  his  own  people,  a  deserter  to  the  colo- 
nists. His  dead  body  was  beheaded  and  quartered,  the 
sentence  of  the  English  law  upon  traitors.  One  of  his 
hands  was  given  to  the  Indian  who  had  shot  him,  and 
on  the  day  appointed  for  a  public  thanksgiving  his  head  Aug.  17. 
was  carried  in  triumph  to  Plymouth. 

The  popular  rage  against  the  Indians  was  excessive. 


492  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  Death  or  slavery  was  the  penalty  for  all  known  or  sus- 
_______  pected  to  have  been  concerned  in  shedding  English  blood. 

1676.  Merely  having  been  present  at  the  "  Swamp  Fight"  was 
adjudged  by  the  authorities  of  Rhode  Island  sufficient 
foundation  for  sentence  of  death,  and  that,  too,  notwith- 
standing they  had  intimated  an  opinion  that  the  origin 
of  the  war  would  not  bear  examination.  The  other  cap- 
tives who  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  colonists  were  dis- 
tributed among  them  as  ten-year  servants.  Roger  Will- 
iams received  a  boy  for  his  share.  Many  chiefs  were 
executed  at  Boston  and  Plymouth  on  the  charge  t>f  re- 
bellion ;  among  others,  Captain  Tom,  chief  of  the  Chris- 
tian Indians  at  Natick,  and  Tispiquin,  a  noted  warrior, 
reputed  to  be  invulnerable,  who  had  surrendered  to 
Church  on  an  implied  promise  of  safety.  A  large  body 
of  Indians,  assembled  at  Dover  to  treat  of  peace,  were 
treacherously  made  prisoners  by  Major  Waldron,  who 
commanded  there.  Some  two  hundred  of  these  Indians, 
claimed  as  fugitives  from  Massachusetts,  were  sent  by 
water  to  Boston,  where  some  were  hanged,  and  the  rest 
shipped  off  to  be  sold  as  slaves.  Some  fishermen  of 
Marblehead  having  been  killed  by  the  Indians  at  the 
eastward,  the  women  of  that  town,  as  they  came  out  of 
meeting  on  a  Sunday,  fell  upon  two  Indian  prisoners 
who  had  just  been  brought  in,  and  murdered  them  on 
the  spot.  The  same  ferocious  spirit  of  revenge  which 
governed  the  cotemporaneous  conduct  of  Berkeley  in 
Virginia  toward  those  concerned  in  Bacon's  rebellion, 
swayed  the  authorities  of  New  England  in  their  treat- 
ment of  the  conquered  Indians.  By  the  end  of  the  year 
the  contest  was  over  in  the  south,  upward  of  two  thou- 
sand Indians  having  been  killed  or  taken.  But  some 
time  elapsed  before  a  peace  could  be  arranged  with  the 
Eastern  tribes,  whose  haunts  it  was  not  so  easy  to  reach. 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  11.     493 

111  this  short  war  of  hardly  a  year's  duration,  the  CHAPTER 
Wampanoags  and  Narragansets  had  suffered  the  fate  of  ' 

the  Pequods.  The  Niantics  alone,  under  the  guidance  1677. 
of  their  aged  sachem  Ninigret,  had  escaped  destruction. 
Philip's  country  was  annexed  to  Plymouth,  though  sixty 
years  afterward,  under  a  royal  order  in  council,  it  was 
transferred  to  Rhode  Island.  The  Narraganset  territory 
remained  as  before,  under  the  name  of  King's  Province, 
a  bone  of  contention  between  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island, 
the  Marquis  of  Hamilton,  and  the  Atherton  claimants. 
The  Niantics  still  retained  their  ancient  seats  along  the 
southern  shores  of  Narraganset  Bay.  Most  of  the  sur- 
viving. Narragansets,  the  Nipmucks,  and  the  River  In- 
dians, abandoned  their  country,  and  migrated  to  the  north 
and  west.  Such  as  remained,  along  with  the  Mohegans 
and  other  subject  tribes,  became  more  than  ever  abject 
and  subservient. 

The  work  of  conversion  was  now  again  renewed,  and, 
after  such  overwhelming  proofs  of  Christian  superiority, 
with  somewhat  greater  success.  A  second  edition  of  the 
Indian  Old  Testament,  which  seems  to  have  been  more 
in  demand  than  the  New,  was  presently  published,  revis-  1683. 
ed  by  Eliot,  with  the  assistance  of  John  Cotton,  son  of 
the  "  great  Cotton,"  and  minister  of  Plymouth.  But  not 
an  individual  exists  in  our  day  by  whom  it  can  be  under- 
stood. The  fragments  of  the  subject  tribes,  broken  in 
spirit,  lost  the  savage  freedom  and  rude  virtues  of  their 
fathers,  without  acquiring  the  laborious  industry  of  the 
whites.  Lands  were  assigned  them  in  various  places, 
which  they  were  prohibited  by  law  from  alienating.  But 
this  very  provision,  though  humanely  intended,  operated 
to  perpetuate  their  indolence  and  incapacity.  Some 
sought  a  more  congenial  occupation  in  the  whale  fishery, 
which  presently  began  to  be  carried  on  from  the  islands 


494  HISTORY   OF    THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  of  Nantucket  and  Martha's  Vineyard.      Many  perished 
______  by  enlisting  in  the  military  expeditions  undertaken  in 

1677.  future  years  against  Acadie  and  the  West  Indies.  The 
Indians  intermarried  with  the  blacks,  and  thus  confirmed 
their  degradation  by  associating  themselves  with  another 
oppressed  and  unfortunate  race.  Gradually  they  dwin- 
dled away.  A  few  hundred  sailors  and  petty  farmers, 
of  mixed  blood,  as  much  African  as  Indian,  are  now  the 
sole  surviving  representatives  of  the  aboriginal  possessors 
of  southern  New  England. 

On  the  side  of  the  colonists  the  contest  had  also  been 
very  disastrous.  Twelve  or  thirteen  towns  had  been  en- 
tirely ruined,  and  many  others  partially  destroyed.  Six 
hundred  houses  had  been  burned,  near  a  tenth  part  of 
all  in  New  England.  Twelve  captains,  and  more  than 
six  hundred  men  in  the  prime  of  life,  had  fallen  in  bat- 
tle. There  was  hardly  a  family  not  in  mourning.  The 
pecuniary  losses  and  expenses  of  the  war  were  estimated 
at  near  a  million  of  dollars.  Massachusetts  was  burden- 
ed with  a  heavy  debt.  No  aid  nor  relief  seems  to  have 
come  from  abroad,  except  a  contribution  from  Ireland  of 
£500  for  the  benefit  of  the  sufferers  by  the  war,  chiefly 
collected  by  the  efforts  of  Nathaniel  Mather,  lately  suc- 
cessor to  his  brother  Samuel  as  minister  of  the  noncon 
formist  congregation  at  Dublin..  These  Dublin  minis- 
ters, both  graduates  of  Harvard  College,  were  elder  broth- 
ers of  Increase  Mather,  minister  of  Boston  North  Church, 
already  becoming  a  distinguished  person  in  the  colony. 
The  New  England  colonists  even  accused  their  neigh- 
bors of  Albany  of  furnishing  powder  and  shot  to  the  In- 
dians ;  but  this  charge  was  indignantly  denied  by  Andros, 
whom  the  Duke  of  York,  on  recovering  his  province,  had 
appointed  as  its  governor.  Yet  his  attempt,  just  at  the 
breaking  out  of  the  war,  to  surprise  the  fort  at  Saybrook, 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.  495 

under  pretense  that  the  charter  of  New  York  extended  CHAPTER 

XIV 

to  the  Connecticut,  and  his  shuffling  and  captious  corre-          ' 
spondence  on  the  subject  of  obtaining  assistance  from  the  1677 
Mohawks,  gave  reason  enough  for  the  Connecticut  au- 
thorities to  regard  him  with  some  doubt. 

The  war  at  the  eastward  still  continuing,  the  project  of 
a  Mohawk  alliance  was  revived.  Even  the  Connecticut  July, 
valley  was  not  secure.  Some  fugitives,  who  had  taken 
refuge  in  Canada,  descended  along  that  river,  fell  upon  a 
party  assembled  at  Hatfield,  at  a  house  raising,  and  car-  Sept.  19. 
ried  off  twenty  prisoners.  The  husbands  of  two  of  the 
captives  proceeded  to  Canada,  guided  by  a  Mohawk  In- 
dian, by  way  of  Albany  and  Lake  Champlain — the  first 
recorded  journey  made  in  that  direction ;  and,  by  the 
friendly  intervention  of  the  French  governor,  succeeded 
in  redeeming  the  captives. 

In  the  midst  of  these  domestic  disasters,  new  troubles 
were  preparing  in  the  mother  country.  A  petition  from 
the  English  merchants  had  been  presented  to  the  Privy  1675. 
Council,  complaining  of  the  total  disregard  of  the  acts 
of  trade  in  New  England.  The  Committee  for  Planta- 
tions had  suggested,  by  way  of  remedy,  to  establish  a 
royal  custom-house  at  Boston,  with  officers  to  look  after 
breaches  of  the  acts  of  trade.  The  difficulty  was  to  pro- 
vide salaries  for  them.  Should  Massachusetts  decline  to 
receive  these  officers,  it  was  proposed  to  refuse  Mediter- 
ranean passes  to  her  ships,  thus  exposing  them  to  cap- 
ture by  the  Barbary  pirates ;  also  to  cut  off  her  trade 
with  the  southern  colonies,  and  to  authorize  such  of  the 
king's  frigates  as  might  visit  the  American  coast  to  seize 
offenders  and  send  them  to  England  for  trial — expedients 
indicative  enough  of  the  weakness  and  poverty  of  the 
king's  government. 

Association  of  breaches  of  the  acts  of  trade,  with  re- 
sistance to  prerogative,  tended  to  strengthen  the  hands 


496  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  of  the  kin ST,  who  might  now  expect,  in  the  controversy 

XIV 

with  Massachusetts,  support  from  the  English  mercantile 

1676.  interest.      The  Massachusetts  theocracy  gained  also  new 
hold  on  the  affections  of  the  colonists  as  advocates  of 
colonial  free  trade,  and  new  support  from  pecuniary  as 
well  as  spiritual  considerations. 

Mason  and  Gorges  had  continued  to  urge  in  England 
their  respective  claims  to  New  Hampshire  and  Maine  ; 

June,  and,  in  the  midst  of  the  Indian  war,  Randolph,  a  kins 
man  of  Mason,  and  henceforward,  by  his  zeal  and  perti- 
nacity, the  terror  and  abhorrence  of  Massachusetts,  ar- 
rived at  Boston  with  notice  from  the  Privy  Council  that 
unless,  within  six  months,  agents  were  sent  to  defend  the 
right  of  Massachusetts  to  those  provinces,  judgment  by 
default  would  be  given  for  the  claimants.  Thus  pushed, 
the  General  Court,  after  consulting  the  elders,  commis- 

Sept  sioned  Bulkley  and  Stoughton  as  agents  ;  but  their  pow- 
ers were  very  carefully  circumscribed.  Bulkley,  son  of 
the  first  minister  of  Concord,  was  speaker  of  the  House, 
and  subsequently  a  magistrate.  The  father  of  Stough- 
ton, commander  of  the  Massachusetts  troops  in  the  Pe- 
quod  war,  had  afterward  been  a  lieutenant  colonel  in  the 
Parliamentary  army.  Stoughton  himself,  after  gradua- 
ting at  Harvard  College,  studied  divinity,  and  obtained, 
by  his  father's  interest,  an  Oxford  fellowship,  from  which 
he  had  been  ejected  at  the  Restoration.  He  inherited, 
however,  a  handsome  estate,  and,  returning  to  New  En- 
gland, was  presently  chosen  a  magistrate,  and  now  agent. 

1677.  After  hearing  the  parties,  the  Privy  Council  decided, 
in  accordance  with  the  opinion  of  the  two  chief  justices, 
that  the  Massachusetts  patent  did  not  include  any  terri- 
tory more  than  three  miles  distant  from  the  left,  or  north- 
ern bank  of  the  Merrimac.      This  construction,  which  set 
aside  the  pretensions  of  Massachusetts  to  the  province  of 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.      497 

Maine,  as  well  as  to  that  part  of  New  Hampshire  east  CHAPTER 

of  the  Merrimac,  appeared  so  plain  to  the  English  law- 

yers  that  the  agents  hardly  attempted  a  defense.       •         1677. 

The  king  had  intended  to  purchase  Maine  as  an  ap- 
panage for  the  Duke  of  Monmouth,  his  illegitimate  son. 
But  Massachusetts  was  beforehand  with  him ;  and, 
through  the  agency  of  Usher,  a  wealthy  Boston  mer- 
chant, Gorges  was  induced,  for  the  sum  of  £1200,  to 
sell  out  all  his  rights  as  proprietary,  thus  confirming  the  May  6. 
jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts,  and  giving  her  a  title  to 
the  ungranted  soil. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice,  as  throwing  some  light  on  the 
habits  of  the  colonists,  at  least  a  part  of  them,  that  this 
Usher,  the  richest  merchant  in  Boston,  had  acquired  his 
fortune  in  the  bookselling  business.  A  London  station- 
er, who  presently  visited  Boston  with  a  venture  of  books, 
"  most  of  them  practical,"  and  so  "  well  suited  to  the 
genius  of  New  England,"  found  no  less  than  four  book- 
sellers established  in  that  town. 

The  province  of  Maine,  as  purchased  by  Massachusetts, 
was  bounded  by  the  Kennebec.  Sagadahoc,  the  territory, 
that  is,  from  the  Kennebec  to  the  Penobscot,  was  claimed 
as  forming  a  part  of  New  York.  Jurisdiction  over  its  few 
scattered  hamlets  had  lately  been  assumed  on  behalf  of 
the  duke  by  Andros,  governor  of  that  province,  who  built 
a  fort  at  Pemaquid,  and  terminated  the  Indian  war  in 
that  quarter  by  agreeing  to  pay  the  Indians  a  tribute, 
or  quit-rent,  of  a  peck  of  corn  for  each  English  family. 
A  treaty  with  these  tribes,  concluded  about  the  same 
time  by  the  Massachusetts  authorities  at  Casco,  gave 
peace  to  the  eastern  coasts;  not,  however,  till  the  set-  1678. 
tlements  of  Maine  had  lost  at  least  half  of  their  inhabit-  Apnl  12' 
ants — a  bitter  foretaste  of  wars  to  come. 

The  country  east  of  the  Penobscot,  though  included 
I.  1 1 


498  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  as  far  as  the  St.  Croix  in  the  Duke  of  York's  charter. 

XIV 

'  was  claimed  by  the  French  as  a  part  of  Acadie.  Baron 
1677.  St,  Castin,  a  man  of  intrigue  and  enterprise,  who  had 
borne  a  commission  as  captain  in  the  regiment  of  Carig- 
nan,  sent  to  Canada,  established  himself  on  the  west  shore 
of  the  Penobscot,  on  the  spot  which  still  bears  his  name. 
He  succeeded  to  that  Indian  trade  formerly  carried  on  from 
the  same  spot  by  D'Aulney ;  and,  having  taken  several 
Indian  wives,  daughters  of  the  chiefs,  he  acquired  a  great 
influence  among  the  Indians  of  the  vicinity.  St.  Castin 
and  other  French  traders  furnished  the  Eastern  Indians 
with  arms  and  ammunition.  The  French  missionaries 
converted  them  to  the  Catholic  faith.  Both  were  believed 
to  exercise  an  influence  unfavorable  to  the  English. 

The  jealousy  of  the  English  merchants  once  excited, 
they  soon  renewed  their  complaints  of  the  disregard  by 
Massachusetts  of  the  acts  of  trade.  The  Committee  for 
Plantations,  to  whom  these  complaints  were  referred, 
suggested,  as  the  only  effectual  remedy,  "  a  governor 
wholly  to  be  supported  by  his  majesty."  Randolph, 
who  had  carried  back  to  England  very  exaggerated  ac- 
counts of  the  wealth  and  population  of  Massachusetts, 
soon  returned  to  Boston,  authorized  to  administer  to  the 
New  England  governors  an  oath  to  enforce  the  acts  of 
trade.  Leverett,  on  the  ground  that  no  such  oath  was 
required  by  the  charter,  refused  to  take  it.  The  General 
Oct.  Court,  however,  enacted  a  law  of  their  own  for  enforcing 
the  navigation  acts.  They  re-enacted,  also,  the  original 
oath  of  fidelity,  by  which  allegiance  was  sworn  to  the 
king  as  well  as  the  colony.  They  voted  a  present  to 
the  king  of  cranberries,  "  special  good  samp"  and  cod- 
fish, and  sent  an  humble  petition,  with  another  also  from 
the  New  Hampshire  towns,  that  they  might  be  allowed 
to  retain  jurisdiction  as  far  as  the  Piscataqua. 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II. 

The   Baptist   Church  in  Boston,   after   meeting   for  CHAPTER 
fourteen  'years  in  private  houses,  part  of  the  time  with     .'  . '  ^ 
much  secrecy,  had  caused  a  building  to  be  erected  for  a 
meeting  house.     As  soon  as  the  purpose  of  this  building  1678. 
became  known,  a  law  was  enacted  forbidding  the  erec-  May  1' 
tion  of  any  meeting  house  except  with  the  consent  of  the 
freemen  of  the  town  and  the  County  Court,  or  by  appro- 
bation, on  appeal,  of  the  General  Court ;  and  subjecting 
any  buildings  erected  contrary  to  the  act,  and  the  land 
on  which  they  stood,  to  forfeiture. 

The  oath  of  allegiance,  by  which  thje  king  and  the 
colony  were  put  upon  a  level,  did  not  give  satisfaction  in 
England.  Randolph  presently  reappeared  with  an  oath  Oct. 
drawn  out  in  form.  The  magistrates  took  it  themselves, 
and  imposed  it  on  all  other  officers.  Letters,  meanwhile, 
had  arrived  from  the  agents,  with  accounts  of  new  com- 
plaints against  the  colony ;  objections  to  their  laws,  as 
contradicting  those  of  England  ;  their  imposition  of  du- 
ties on  imports  from  England  ;  their  neglect  of  the  acts 
of  trade  ;  shelter  to  the  regicides  ;  execution  of  Quakers  ; 
coining  money  not  in  the  king's  image ;  and  use  of  the 
word  "  commonwealth"  in  their  laws.  To  these  objec- 
tions the  court  replied,  defending  some  points,  apologiz- 
ing for  others ;  excusing  themselves  for  their  neglect  of 
the  acts  of  navigation  on  the  ground  that,  not  being  rep- 
resented in  Parliament,  they  had  not  supposed  them- 
selves bound  by  those  acts.  Though  "  a  great  discour- 
agement to  trade,"  they  promised,  however,  to  submit  to 
them — to  any  thing,  indeed,  short  of  compromising  the 
"  interest  of  the  Lord  Jesus  and  his  churches  situate  in 
this  wilderness."  On  that  point  they  would  yield  nothing. 

Leverett  presently  died  in  office.     The  choice  of  Brad-  1679. 
street  to  fill  his  place  was  an  evidence  of  the  progress  of    May- 
the  moderate  party. 


500  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  A  synod  was  presently  called  to  inquire  "  what  rea- 
sons had  provoked  the  Lord  to  bring  his  judgments  on 
1680.  New  England."  This  synod,  of  which  Increase  Mather 
drew  up  the  result,  denounced  a  list  of  sins  nearly  iden- 
tical with  those  to  which  the  General  Court  had  ascrib- 
ed the  late  Indian  war.  The  confession  of  faith  and  sys- 
tem of  discipline  were  revised  and  confirmed.  Reforma- 
tion was  earnestly  recommended,  and  a  return  to  the  piety 
and  austerity  of  former  times. 

Feb.  The  agents  soon  returned  with  a  royal  letter  demand- 
ing toleration  for  all  sects  except  papists ;  the  choice  of  the 
full  number  of  eighteen  assistants ;  the  issue  of  all  com- 
missions, military  and  civi],  in  the  king's  name ;  the  re- 
peal of  all  laws  repugnant  to  the  acts  of  trade ;  the  assign- 
ment of  Maine  to  the  king,  on  receiving  the  amount  paid 
for  it ;  what  was  most  unpalatable  of  all,  the  surrender 
of  the  peculiar  privileges  of  church  members,  by  estab- 
lishing a  pecuniary  qualification  as  the  sole  one  for  ad- 
mission to  the  freedom  of  the  colony.  New  agents  were 
to  be  appointed  within  six  months,  with  full  power  to 
make  the  concessions  demanded.  Stoughton  had  been 
a  great  stickler  for  theocracy,  as  evinced  by  his  election 
sermon  in  1668.  He  was  still  much  inclined  that  way. 
But,  looking  to  the  future,  and  seeing  power  about  to 
pass  into  other  hands,  he  was  disposed  also  "  to  stand 
right  to  his  majesty's  interest." 

The  returning  agents  were  quickly  followed  by  the 
July,  busy  Randolph,  who  came  out  with  a  commission  as  col- 
lector of  the  royal  customs  for  New  England,  and  in- 
spector for  enforcing  the  acts  of  trade — an  office  to  which 
he  had  been  appointed  some  time  before,  but  the  com- 
mission for  which  had  been  hitherto  kept  back,  because 
there  appeared  no  source,  except  the  empty  royal  ex- 
chequer, out  of  which  to  pay  his  salary. 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.      5  Q 


Randolph  presented  his  commission  to  the  Massachu-  CHAPTER 

A  XIV. 

setts  court,  but  they  took  no  notice^of  it.     He  pressed^ 

them  to  say  if  they  allowed  it  to  be  valid,  but  they  made  1680. 
no  answer.  The  notice  of  his  appointment,  posted  up 
at  the  public  exchange,  was  torn  down  by  order  of  the 
magistrates  ;  and  the  General  Court  presently  erected  a 
naval  office  of  their  own,  at  which  all  vessels  were  re- 
quired to  enter  and  clear,  as  Randolph  alleged,  for  the 
very  purpose  of  superseding  his  authority. 

Encouraged  by  the  king's  demand  for  toleration,  con-  March, 
strued  as  superseding  the  "  by-laws"  of  the  colony,  the 
Baptists  ventured  to  hold  a  service  in  their  new  meeting 
house.  For  this  they  were  summoned  before  the  mag- 
istrates, and,  when  they  refused  to  desist,  the  doors  were 
nailed  up,  and  the  following  order  posted  upon  them : 
"  All  persons  are  to  take  notice,  that,  by  order  of  the 
court,  the  doors  of  this  house  are  shut  up,  and  that  they 
are  inhibited  to  hold  any  meeting  therein,  or  to  open  the 
doors  thereof,  without  license  from  authority,  till  the 
General  Court  take  further  order,  as  they  will  answer 
the  contrary  at  their  peril."  When  the  General  Court  May  19. 
met,  the  Baptists  pleaded  that  their  house  was  built  be- 
fore any  law  was  made  to  prevent  it.  This  plea  was  so 
far  allowed  that  their  past  offenses  were  forgiven.  But 
they  were  not  allowed  to  open  the  house. 

It  had  been  strongly  intimated  in  the  result  of  the 
late  synod  that  the  Baptists  were  guilty  "  of  setting  up 
an  altar  against  the  Lord's  altar."  Increase  Mather,  in 
his  "  Divine  Right  of  Infant  Baptism,"  now  published, 
charged  them,  also,  with  "  the  sin  of  Jeroboam,  who 
made  priests  out  of  the  lowest  of  the  people."  To  a 
vindication  by  Elder  Russell  of  himself  and  his  brethren, 
containing  an  account  of  the  late  proceedings,  sent  to 
London  and  printed  there,  Willard,  minister  of  the  South 


502  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  Church,  replied  the  next  year  in  a  pamphlet,  to  which 
'      Mather  wrote  a  prftace,  and  which  fully  came  up  to  the 

1680.  tone  of  the  motto,  "  Ne  sutor  ultra  crepidam" — "Let 
the  shoemaker  stick  to  his  last" — an  insolent  allusion  to 
the  former  occupation  of  Russell. 

A  curious  offshoot  from  the  Baptist  sect  had  lately 
sprung  up  in  Connecticut,  called  Rogerenes,  after  Jona- 
than Rogers,  of  New  London,  their  founder.  Their  most 
distinguishing  tenet  was  the  observance  of  the  seventh 
day  (Saturday)  as  the  Sabbath,  and  their  violent  denun- 
ciation of  Sunday  as  the  "  idol- Sabbath."  They  made 
it  a  point  to  work  on  that  day,  and  then  to  complain  of 
themselves.  They  also  held  to  "  spiritual  marriages." 
The  use  of  medicines  they  denounced  as  a  sinful  attempt 
to  thwart  God's  providence,  and  family  prayers  and  say- 
ing grace  at  meals  as  mere  formalities,  for  which  there 

1677.  was  no  Scripture  warrant.  To  a  remonstrance  from  the 
Baptists  of  Rhode  Island  against  the  fining  and  impris- 
oning of  some  of  these  enthusiasts,  Governor  Leet  re- 
plied that  they  had  been  treated  with  "  all  condescension 
imaginable,"  and  might  be  freely  indulged  in  "  their  per- 
suasions" if  they  would  but  forbear  to  offend  the  "  con- 
sciences" of  others  by  insisting  upon  too  open  an  avowal 
of  their  opinions.  • 

As  Mason  had  no  charter  of  New  Hampshire,  but 
only  a  grant  under  the  great  patent  of  New  England, 
he  had  no  claims  to  jurisdiction ;  and,  according  to  the 
forms  of  the  English  law,  even  his  title  to  the  soil,  as 
against  the  occupiers,  could  only  be  tried  on  the  spot. 
To  facilitate  these  trials,  and  to  give  them  a  turn  as  fa- 
vorable as  might  be  to  Mason,  the  jurisdiction  of  New 
Hampshire  had  been  assumed  by  the  king ;  and  Ran- 
dolph had  brought  out  with  him  a  royal  commission  for 
setting  up  a  government.  To  reconcile  the  people  to  the 


NEW  ENGLAND   UNDER  CHARLES   II.  593 

change,  a  president  and  counselors  were  selected  from  CHAPTER 

XIV 

among  them,  the  president  being  John  Cutts,  a  principal 

inhabitant  of  Portsmouth.     An  Assembly  was  also  con-  1680. 
ceded,  "so  long  as  the  king  might  find  it  convenient."* 
This  Assembly,  at  its  first  session,  opened  with  prayers  March  16. 
and  a  sermon  by  Moody,  minister  of  Portsmouth,  grate- 
fully acknowledged  the  past  care  and  kindness  of  Mas- 
sachusetts.    They  enacted,  also,  a  body  of  laws,  compiled 
from  the  Massachusetts  code  ;  but  these  were  rejected  in 
England  as  "  fanatical  and  absurd." 

Mason  presently  visited  the  province,  and,  under  a  1681. 
royal  appointment,  took  a  seat  in  the  council.  Little 
satisfied  with  Cutts,  he  procured  the  appointment  of  gov- 
ernor for  Cranfield,  an  official  from  London,  who  was  1682. 
to  have  for  salary  a  fifth  part  of  all  quit-rents  recovered 
of  the  settlers,  and  to  whom  Mason  guaranteed,  by  a 
mortgage  on  the  province,  the  annual  payment  of  £  150. 
Mason  put  in  a  claim  to  all  that  part  of  Massachusetts 
north  of  Salem,  as  included  in  his  grandfather's  old  grant 
of  Mariana,  and  hence  a  new  subject  of  alarm  in  Massa- 
chusetts. 

While  New  Hampshire  thus  finally  passed  from  their 
control,  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  proceeded 
to  establish  over  Maine  a  proprietary  government  on  the 
basis  of  Gorges's  charter.  Deputy-governor  Danforth 
was  appointed  president  of  this  resuscitated  province,  with 
a  council  named  by  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts. 
The  inhabitants  were  allowed  the  privilege,  according  to 
the  terms  of  Gorges's  charter,  of  choosing  deputies  from 
the  towns,  who  formed,  along  with  the  president  and 
council,  a  provincial  assembly.  But  those  to  whom 
even  full  citizenship  of  Massachusetts  had  not  been  sat- 
isfactory, were  still  less  pleased  with  this  dependent  posi- 
tion. Danforth  proceeded  to  Maine  with  a  body  of  horse 


504  HISTORY    OF    THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  and  foot,  and  some  show,  if  not  exercise  of  force,  became 

XIV. 

necessary  to  support  the  new  government. 

1680.  Randolph  made  a  vigorous  attempt  at  Boston  to  ex- 
Sept.  »ercise  m's  office  by  seizing  vessels  for  violation  of  the 

acts  of  trade.  But  the  whole  population  was  against 
him;  he  was  overwhelmed  with  law-suits  for  damages, 
and  in  almost  every  case  was  cast  with  costs.  Having 

1681.  appealed  in  vain  to  the  General  Court,  he  noted  and 
April.    posted  on  the  Exchange  a  protest  against  what  he  called 

"  a  faction"  in  that  body,  meaning  thereby  the  ultra 
theocratic  party.  The  deputy  whom  he  had  appointed 
at  Portsmouth  encountered  the  same  sort  of  obstructions. 
Gookin,  on  Denison's  death  elected  major  general  of  the 
colony,  and  the  last  who  held  that  office,  was  specified  by 
Randolph  as  among  the  most  vigorous  of  his  opponents. 

Finding  himself  involved  in  law-suits  and  perplexities, 
and  alleging  that  he  was  even  in  danger  of  being  tried 
for  his  life  under  the  old  law  against  subverters  of  the 
colonial  Constitution,  Randolph  obtained  leave  to  go  to 
1682  England;  whence,  however,  he  speedily  came  back,  with 
Feb-  a  royal  letter  complaining  of  these  obstructions,  and  de- 
manding the  immediate  appointment  of  agents  empow- 
ered to  consent  to  a  modification  of  the  charter. 

Disobedience  was  no  longer  safe.  Affairs  in  England 
had  undergone  a  great  change.  After  a  fierce  struggle, 
which  had  long  engaged  the  attention  of  the  king  and 
his  cabinet,  and  which  may  partly  serve  to  account  for 
the  feeble  and  vacillating  policy  hitherto  pursued  toward 
Massachusetts,  the  court  party,  or  Tories,  as  they  be- 
gan to  be  called,  the  High  Churchmen,  the  advocates  of 
divine  right  and  arbitrary  power,  had  completely  tri- 
umphed. The  king  already  threatened  with  writs  of  Quo 
Warranto  the  English  cities  and  boroughs,  the  strong- 
holds of  his  opponents.  In  this  emergency  Stoughton 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.      £05 

was  again  appointed  agent,  and  with  him  Joseph  Dud-  CHAPTER 
ley,  son  of  the  former  governor,  a  young  man  of  thirty-five,          ' 
who  now  began  to  come  conspicuously  forward.     Stough-  1682. 
ton  having  declined  the  thankless  task,  his  place  was 
supplied  by  Richards,  a  strong  advocate  for  the  theocra- 
cy, who  had  raised  himself  from  an  indented  servant  to 
be  a  wealthy  merchant,  and  who  had  lately  been  ap- 
pointed one    of  the   assistants.      Dudley,  as  Randolph 
wrote,  "  had  his  fortune  to  make  in  the  world,  and  if  he 
find  things  resolutely  managed,  will  cringe  and  bow  to 
any  thing."      "  If,  upon  alteration  of.  the  government, 
he  were  made  captain  of  the  castle  of  Boston  and  the 
forts  in  the  colony,  his  majesty,"  it  was  suggested,  «  will 
gain  a  popular  man  and  oblige  the  better  party." 

Randolph's  commission  was  ordered  to  be  enrolled. 
The  court,  by  a  new  act,  charged  their  newly-appointed 
naval  officer  to  look  strictly  after  the  enforcement  of  the 
acts  of  trade.  The  penalty  of  death  for  plotting  the 
overthrow  of  the  colonial  Constitution  was  repealed.  For 
the  word  "Commonwealth"  throughout  the  laws,  "ju- 
risdiction" was  substituted.  The  agents  were  merely 
authorized  to  lay  these  concessiohs  before  the  king,  which 
it  was  humbly  hoped  would  satisfy  his  majesty. 

On  the  appearance  of  these  agents  at  court  with  pow-     July, 
ers  so  restricted,  a  Quo  Warranto  was  threatened  forth- 
with unless  they  were  furnished  with  ampler  authority. 
Informed  of  this  threat,  the  General  Court,  after  great  1683. 
debates,  authorized  their  agents  to  consent  to  the  regu-  Marcl1 
lation  of  any  thing  wherein  the  government  "  might  ig- 
norantly  or  through  mistake  have  deviated  from  the  char- 
ter ;"  to  accept,  indeed,  any  demands  consistent  with  the 
charter,  the  existing  government  established  under  it,  and 
the  "  main  ends  of  our  predecessors  in  coming  hither," 
which  main  ends  were  defined  to  be  "  our  liberties  and 


506  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  privileges  in  matters  of  religion  and  worship  of  God, 
'  which  you  are,  therefore,  in  no  wise  to  consent  to  any  in- 
1 683.  fringement  of."  They  were  authorized  to  give  up  Maine 
to  the  king,  and  even  to  tender  him  a  private  gratuity 
of  two  thousand  guineas.  Bribes  were  quite  the  fashion 
at  Charles's  court ;  the  king  and  all  his  servants  were  ac- 
customed to  take  them.  The' Massachusetts  agents  had 
expended  considerable  sums  to  purchase  favor  or  to  ob- 
tain information,  and,  by  having  clerks  of  the  Privy 
Council  in  their  pay,  they  were  kept  well  informed  of 
the  secret  deliberations  of  that  body.  But  this  offer,  un- 
skillfully  managed,  and  betrayed  by  Cranfield,  the  lately 
appointed  royal  governor  of  New  Hampshire,  who  had 
advised  the  magistrates  to  make  it,  exposed  the  colony  to 
blame  and  ridicule. 

Nothing  further  could  now  be  done.  The  agents  re- 
turned home.  Randolph  filed  articles  of  high  misde- 
meanor. A  writ  of  Quo  Warranto  issued,  and  that  in- 
defatigable enemy  again  crossed  the  ocean  in  a  royal 
Nov.  frigate,  and  himself  served  the  writ  on  the  magistrates. 

If  the  charter  were  surrendered  without  the  delays  and 
formality  of  a  trial,  the  king  promised  to  be  gracious,  and 
to  make  as  few  innovations  as  possible.  The  English  cit- 
ies, except  London,  had  agreed  to  surrender  their  charters, 
and  London,  after  an  unavailing  resistance,  had  lost  hers 
by  a  judgment  of  court.  What  should  Massachusetts  do  ? 

The  popular  party  in  England  had  just  been  crushed 
a  second  time  by  the  execution  of  Russell  and  Sidney. 
Bradstreet  and  the  moderate  party  were  inclined  to  bend 
to  the  storm,  and  to  authorize  the  agents  to  receive,  the 
king's  commands.  The  magistrates  passed  a  vote  to  that 
effect.  But  all  the  zeal  and  obstinacy  of  the  theocratic 
party  had  been  roused  by  the  present  crisis — a  zeal  re- 
sulting, as  hot  zeal  often  does,  in  the  ultimate  loss  of 


NEW  ENGLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.  597 

what  it  was  so  anxious  to  save.     It  was  argued  that  CHAPTER 

XIV 

submission  would  be  a  sin  against  God  ;  and,  with  much 

plausibility,  that  nothing  could  be  gained  by  it.  Increase  1683. 
Mather  spoke  to  that  effect  in  a  Boston  town  meeting 
held  to  consider  the  subject.  After  a  fortnight's  debate, 
the  deputies  refused  to  concur.  They  voted,  instead,  an 
address  to  tho  king,  praying  forbearance ;  but  they  au- 
thorized Robert  Humphreys,  a  London  attorney,  and  the 
legal  adviser  of  the  agents,  to  enter  an  appearance,  and 
to  retain  counsel,  requesting  him  "to  leave  no  stone  un- 
turned that  may  be  of  service  either  in  the  case  itself, 
or  the  spinning  out  the  time  as  much  as  possibly  may 
be."  No  less  than  three  successive  letters  were  written 
to  Humphreys  ;  money  was  remitted  ;  it  was  recom- 
mended that  the  counsel  he  might  retain  should  consult 
"  my  Lord  Coke,  in  his  fourth  part,  about  the  Isle  of 
Man  and  Guernsey."  But  all  hopes  of  defense  were 
futile.  Before  these  letters  arrived  in  London  a  default 
had  already  been  recorded.  That  default  could  not  be 
got  off,  and  judgment  was  entered  up  the  next  year,  pro-  1684. 
nouncing  the  charter  void. 

Meanwhile,  New  Hampshire  was  in  a  very  unquiet 
state.  Finding  the  Assembly  unmanageable,  Cranfield 
dissolved  it,  whereupon  an  insurrection  followed.  Gove,  16$ 2. 
the  leader,  was  arrested,  tried,  found  guilty,  and  sent  to 
England,  but  was  there  pardoned.  Juries,  selected  "  with 
some  art"  by  a  sheriff  of  the  governor's  appointment,  re- 
turned verdicts  in  Mason's  favor  in  actions  of  ejectment 
brought  to  establish  his  title.  But  to  get  possession  un- 
der these  verdicts  was  quite  another  matter.  The  sher- 
iff and  his  officers  were  resisted  and  mobbed,  beaten  with 
clubs  by  the  men,  and  attacked  with  spits  and  hot  water 
by  the  women.  Cranfield  at  first  had  courted  the  min- 
isters, but,  not  finding  so  much  countenance  from  them 


508  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  as  he  had  hoped,  he  had  the  imprudence  to  plunge  into 
a  religious  quarrel  also.     Pretending  that  the  English 

1684.  ecclesiastical  law  was  in  force  in  the  province,  he  forbade 
the  church  at  Portsmouth  to  exercise  discipline  over  an 
offending  brother  whom  he  had  taken  under  his  protec- 
tion.    He  claimed,  also,  for  himself  and  all  others  of  "  de- 
cent life  and  conversation,"  admission  to  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per, which  he  required  Moody,  minister  of  Portsmouth, 
to  administer  to  him  according  to  the  Liturgy.      Upon 
Moody 's  refusal,  he  was  tried,  deprived  of  his  office,  and 
imprisoned — conduct  which  made   Cranfield  still  more 
obnoxious.      Discharged  at  length  under  a  strict  injunc- 
tion to  preach  no  more  in  the  province,  Moody  came  to 
Boslon,  and  was  rewarded  for  his  firmness  by  being  cho- 
sen assistant  minister  of  the  First  Church.      Between 
"  factious  preachers"  and  obstinate  tenants,  Cranfield  fear- 
ed, or  pretended  to  fear,  for  his  life.     He  retired  to  Boston, 
and  the  people  of  New  Hampshire  sent  agents  to  England 
to  complain  of  his  conduct.     Wearied  out  with  the  unsuc- 
cessful struggle,  he  presently  solicited  a  recall,  in  order, 
as  he  alleged,  "  that  the  world  might  see  that  it  was  not 
him,  but  the  royal  commission  they  caviled  at,  and  that 
his  real  offense  was  his  attempt  to  put  the  king's  com- 

•  rnands  in  execution."  Some  of  the  charges  against  him 
being  sustained,  he  departed  for  the  West  Indies,  where 
he  obtained  the  post  of  collector  of  Barbadoes. 

1685.  The  government  was  left  in  the  hands  of  Deputy -go  v- 
January.  ernor  Barefoote,  for  twenty-five  years  a  resident  in  the 

province.  He  complained,  like  his  predecessor,  of  "  fac- 
tious preachers,"  and  a  "  malignant  party  directed  by 
the  Massachusetts,"  and  declared  that  "  without  some 
force  to  keep  these  people  under,"  it  would  be  a  difficult 
if  not  impossible  thing  «  to  put  in  execution  his  majesty's 
orders  or  the  laws  of  trade." 


VIRGINIA   UNDER   CHARLES   II.  509 


CHAPTER   XV. 

VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.  AND 
JAMES  II. 

jLJURING  the  continuance  of  the  English  Common-  CHAPTER 
wealth,  Virginia  had  enjoyed  a  very  popular  form  of  gov-  - 

ernment.  All  tax-payers  had  the  right  to  vote  for  burg- 
esses. The  Assembly,  subject  to  frequent  renewals,  had 
assumed  the  right  of  electing  the  governor,  counselors, 
and  other  principal  officers ;  and,  except  a  general  con- 
formity to  the  policy  of  the  mother  country,  local  affairs 
appear  to  have  been  managed  with  very  little  of  external 
control. 

Great  changes  in  these  respects  were  now  to  happen. 
During  the  quarter  of  a  century  which  followed  the  Res- 
toration, a  considerable  part  of  the  freemen  of  Virginia 
were  deprived  of  the  elective  franchise — an  invaluable 
privilege,  not  recovered  till  the  middle  of  the  current  cen- 
tury. The  Assembly's  authority  was  also  greatly  cur- 
tailed ;  while  a  corresponding  increase  took  place  in  the 
power  and  prerogatives  of  the  governor  and  the  counsel- 
ors. These  changes  were  occasioned,  in  part,  by  ex- 
ternal pressure,  but  they  sprung  also,  to  a  considerable 
extent,  from  internal  causes,  existing  in  the  social  organ- 
ization of  the  colony. 

The  founders  of  Virginia,  like  those  of  New  England, 
had  brought  with  them  from  the  mother  country  strong 
aristocratic  prejudices  and  a  marked  distinction  of  ranks. 
Both  in  Virginia  and  New  England  the  difference  be- 
tween "  gentlemen"  and  "  those  of  the  common  sort" 


510  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  was  very  palpable.     Indented  servants  formed  a  still  in- 

'      ferior  class  ;  not  to  mention  negro  and  Indian  slaves,  of 

1660.  whom,  however,  for  a  long  period  after  the  planting  of 

Virginia,  the  number  was  almost  as  inconsiderable  in 

that  colony  as  it  always  remained  in  New  England. 

But  though  starting,  in  these  respects,  from  a  com- 
mon basis,  the  operation  of  different  causes  early  pro- 
duced different  effects,  resulting  in  a  marked  difference 
of  local  character.  The  want  in  New  England  of  any 
staple  product  upon  which  hired  or  purchased  labor  could 
be  profitably  employed,  discouraged  immigration  and  the 
importation  of  indented  servants  or  slaves.  Hence  the 
population  soon  became,  in  a  great  measure,  home-born 
and  home-bred. 

The  lands  were  granted  by  townships  to  companies 
who  intended  to  settle  together.  The  settlements  were 
required  to  be  made  in  villages,  and  every  village  had  its 
meeting  house,  its  schools,  its  military  company,  its  mu- 
nicipal organization.  In  Virginia,  on  the  other  hand, 
plantations  were  isolated ;  each  man  settled  where  he 
found  a  convenient  unoccupied  spot.  The  parish  church- 
es, the  county  courts,  the  election  of  burgesses,  brought 
the  people  together,  and  kept  up  something  of  adult  ed- 
ucation. But  the  parishes  were  very  extensive  ;  there 
were  no  schools ;  arid  parochial  and  political  rights  were 
soon  greatly  curtailed. 

Even  the  theocratic  form  of  government  prevailing  in 
New  England  tended  to  diminish  the  influence  of  wealth, 
by  introducing  a  different  basis  of  distinction ;  and  still 
more  so  that  activity  of  mind,  the  consequence  of  strong 
religions  excitement,  developing  constantly  new  views  of 
religion  and  politics,  which  an  arrogant  and  supercilious 
theocracy  strove  in  vain  to  suppress.  Hence,  in  New 
England,  a  constant  tendency  toward  social  equality.  In 


VIRGINIA  UNDER  CHARLES  II.  5U 

Virginia  and  Maryland,  on  the  other  hand,  the  manage-  CHAPTER 
ment  of  provincial  and  local  affairs  fell  more  and  more  un-          ' 
der  the  control  of  a  few  wealthy  men,  possessed  of  large  1660. 
tracts  of  land,  which  they  cultivated  by  the  labor  partly 
of  slaves,  but  principally  of  indented  white  servants. 

Indented  service  existed,  indeed,  in  all  the  American 
colonies  ;  but  the  cultivation  of  tobacco  created  a  special 
demand  for  it  in  Virginia  and  Maryland.  A  regular 
trade  was  early  established  in  the  transport  of  persons, 
who,  for  the  sake  of  a  passage  to  America,  suffered  them- 
selves to  be  sold  by  the  master  of  the  vessel  to  serve  for 
a  term  of  years  after  their  arrival.  But  the  embarka- 
tion of  these  indented  servants  was  not  always  voluntary. 
Sometimes  they  were  entrapped  by  infamous  arts,  some- 
times even  kidnapped,  and  sometimes  sentenced  to  trans- 
portation for  political  and  other  offenses.  We  have  al- 
ready had  occasion  to  mention  the  exportation  of  felons 
to  Virginia,  known  among  the  colonists  as  "jail-birds." 
In  the  same  way  Cromwell  disposed  of  many  of  his  En- 
glish, Scotch,  and  Irish  prisoners  of  war,  a  few  of  whom 
were  also  sent  to  New  England.  On  the  expiration  of 
their  term  of  servitude,  limited  to  four,  five,  or,  more 
commonly,  to  seven  years,  these  servants  acquired  all  the 
rights  of  freemen,  and,  in  Virginia,  a  claim,  also,  to  the 
fifty  acres  of  land  to  which  all  immigrants  were  entitled. 
But  the  lands  most  favorably  situated  were  already  tak- 
en up,  and  held  in  large  tracts  by  the  more  wealthy 
planters.  It  was  only  on  the  outskirts  of  the  cultivated 
country  that  these  new  freemen  could  locate  their  grants. 

The  rivers  which  intersected  Lower  Virginia,  dividing 
the  colony  into  a  series  of  "  necks,"  as  they  were  called, 
served  an  excellent  purpose  for  intercommunication. 
There  was  not  a  plantation  at  any  great  distance  from  tide- 
water. Vessels,  ascending  the  rivers,  landed  goods  and 


512  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  took  tobacco  on  board  at  the  very  doors  of  the  planters. 

XV. 

'      But  even  this  facility  was  not  without  its  disadvantages. 

1660.  It  prevented  the  concentration  of  trade  at  particular  spots, 

and  long  opposed  an  insuperable  obstacle  to  the  formation 

of  towns — a  want  sensibly  felt,  and  vainly  attempted,  as 

we  shall  see,  to  be  supplied  by  legislation. 

The  cultivation  of  tobacco,  at  the  low  prices  to  which 
it  had  sunk,  afforded  only  a  scanty  resource  to  that  great 
body  of  free  planters  obliged  to  rely  on  their  own  labor. 
Yet  all  schemes  for  the  introduction  of  other  staples 
had  failed.  The  domestic  manufacture  of  cloths,  suc- 
cessfully introduced  into  New  England,  seems  to  have 
been  almost  unknown  in  Virginia.  Nor  were  there  any 
mechanical  employments  except  of  the  rudest  and  most 
indispensable  sorts.  All  kinds  of  manufactured  goods 
were  imported  from  England  ;  but  neither  in  this  im- 
portation, nor  in  the  exportation  of  their  own  produce,  did 
the  Virginians  themselves  take  any  part.  The  mari- 
time character  of  New  England  was  already  well  estab- 
lished. The  fisheries  and  foreign  trade  formed  an  im- 
portant part  of  her  industry.  Her  ships  might  be  seen 
on  the  Grand  Bank,  in  the  West  Indies,  in  the  ports  of 
Britain,  Spain,  and  Portugal,  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  in 
the  Chesapeake  itself;  while  hardly  one  or  two  small 
vessels  were  owned  in  Virginia,  and  that  notwithstand^ 
ing  the  efforts  of  the  Assembly  to  encourage  ship-build- 
ing  and  navigation,  for  which  the  province  afforded  such 
abundant  facilities. 

Competition  between  Dutch  and  English  trading  ves- 
sels had  assisted  hitherto  to  keep  up  the  price  of  tobacco, 
and  to  secure  a  supply  of  imported  goods  at  reasonable 
rates.  But  that  competition  was  now  to  cease.  The 
English  commercial  interest  had  obtained  from  the  Con- 
vention Parliament,  which  welcomed  back  Charles  II.  to 


VIRGINIA  UNDER  CHARLES  II.  513 

the  English  throne,  that  famous  navigation  act,  which,  CHAPTER 

among  other  provisions  for  the  special  benefit  of  English 

shipping,  substantially  excluded  foreign,  vessels  from  the  1661 
English  colonies.  The  Anglo-American  colonists  were 
also  required  to  ship  exclusively  to  England  all  their 
most  valuable  staples,  designated  by  name,  and  thence 
known  as  "  enumerated  articles,"  of  which  tobacco  was 
one  of  the  chief.  The  Virginians,  alarmed  at  an  act 
which  threatened  to  place  them  at  the  mercy  of  the  En- 
glish traders,  sent  Governor  Berkeley  to  England,  at  an  Marcit. 
expense  to  the  colony  of  two  hundred  thousand  pounds 
of  tobacco,  to  remonstrate  on  their  behalf.  Berkeley  fail- 
ed in  this  public  mission  ;  but  he  improved  the  opportu- 
nity to  secure  for  himself  a  share  in  the  new  province 
of  Carolina,  now  erected  by  charter,  and  of  which  he  be- 
came one  of  the  eight  proprietors.  So  far,  indeed,  from 
relaxing  the  restrictions  complained  of,  the  new  Parlia- 
ment passed  a  further  act,  by  which  the  colonists  were  1663. 
restricted  to  England  for  their  supply  of  European  com- 
modities, being  no  longer  allowed  to  import  them  direct 
from  the  countries  where  they  were  produced.  Thus 
was  the  English  merchant  enabled  to  charge  a  double 
profit  on  the  intercourse  between  Europe  and  the  colo- 
nies, and  the  mother  country,  also,  to  impose  a  tax  upon 
it,  by  means  of  duties  levied  upon  all  "  enumerated  ar- 
ticles" imported  into  England. 

At  the  same  session  at  which  Berkeley  was  sent  to 
England,  Clay  borne  was  ordered  by  the  Virginia  As- 
sembly to  deliver  up  the  colony  records  to  Thomas  Lud- 
well,  appointed  secretary  by  royal  commission. 

Under  the  administration  of  Colonel  Francis  Moryson,  1662 
captain  of  the  fort  at  Point  Comfort,  a  Royalist  immigrant  March 
of  1649,  appointed  by  the  council  to  act  as  governor  dur- 
ing Berkeley's  mission  to  England,  a  third  revision  was 
I.  KK 


514  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  made  of  the  Virginia  statutes.  The  preamble  declares 
them  to  be  "but  as  brief  memorials,  for  convenience' 
1662.  sake,  of  those  excellent  and  often-refined  laws  of  En- 
gland, to  which  we  profess  and  acknowledge  all  due  obe- 
dience and  reverence,"  "  sometimes,  perhaps,  from  the 
difference  of  our  and  their  condition,  varying  in  small 
things,  but  far  from  the  presumption  of  contradicting  any 
thing  therein  contained."  Compiled  under  an  order  of 
the  previous  Assembly  by  the  joint  skill  of  Moryson  and 
Henry  Randolph,  the  clerk,  for  which  service  they  receiv- 
ed fifteen  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco,  this  code  was  sent 
to  England  to  be  printed,  under  an  exclusive  privilege 
of  printing  granted  to  Randolph,  and  his  heirs  and  as- 
signs, for  the  ten  years  ensuing. 

The  Church  of  England  is  re-established  by  this  code, 
with  the  canons,  the  Liturgy,  and  the  church  catechism. 
The  anniversary  of  the  execution  of  Charles  I.  is  made 
a  fast,  and  of  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.  a  holiday. 
Besides  their  glebes  and  parsonages,  a  maintenance  is 
secured  to  the  parish  ministers  in  "  valuable  and  current 
commodities  of  the  country,"  to  the  annual  amount  each 
of  not  less  than  fourscore  pounds,  about  $320.  There 
were  also  fees  and  perquisites ;  for  a  funeral  sermon,  four 
hundred  pounds  of  tobacco ;  for  a  marriage  by  license, 
two  hundred  pounds  of  tobacco,  or  fifty  pounds  when 
the  bans  are  proclaimed.  Philip  Mallory,  "  eminently 
faithful  in  the  ministry,"  had  been  sent  already  "  to 
solicit  church  affairs  in  England,"  on  a  salary  of  eleven 
thousand  pounds  of  tobacco.  Nonconformist  preachers 
are  to  be  silenced  and  sent  out  of  the  country.  The 
Quaker  and  Anabaptist  heresies  had  spread  into  Virginia. 
Two  years  before,  the  Assembly  had  charged  against  the 
Quakers  that,  "  contrary  to  the  law,  they  do  daily  gather 
together  unto  them  unlawful  assemblies  and  congrega- 


VIRGINIA  UNDER  CHARLES  II. 

tions  of  people,  teaching  and  publishing  lies,  miracles,  false  CHAPTER 
visions,  prophecies,  arid  doctrines,  endeavoring  and  at-  - 
tempting  thereby  to  destroy  religious  laws,  communities,  1662, 
and  all  bond  of  civil  society."  By  the  same  assembly,  ship- 
masters bringing  Quakers  into  the  colony  were  subjected 
to  a  penalty  of  ^£  100.  The  Quakers  themselves  were  to 
be  imprisoned  without  trial  till  they  gave  security  to  leave 
the  colony  and  not  to  return.  Such  as  did  return  were 
to  be  proceeded  against  as  contemners  of  the  laws,  and  if 
they  returned  a  second  time,  as  felons.  No  person,  un- 
der penalty  of  £100,  was  to  entertain  a  Quaker,  or  to 
permit  any  Quaker  assembly  in  or  near  his  house ;  nor 
was  any  person,  at  his  peril,  to  distribute  or  purchase 
Quaker  books.  These  harsh  provisions,  apparently  copied 
from  the  legislation  of-  New  England,  are  not  embodied 
in  the  present  code.  Penalties,  however,  are  imposed 
upon  Quakers  and  all  others  who  refuse  to  attend  the 
parish  churches. 

The  management  of  parish  affairs  is  intrusted  to  a 
vestry  of  twelve. persons,  to  be  chosen,  in  the  first  place, 
by  the  parishioners ;  all  vacancies  to  be  filled  by  the 
vote  of  the  minister  and  the  remaining  members.  These 
vestries,  thus  converted  into  close  corporations,  independ- 
ent of  the  parishioners,  had  the  appointment  of  church- 
wardens from  among  themselves,  and  the  right  to  levy 
taxes  for  parochial  purposes.  The  project  of  a  college, 
again  revived,  resulted  in  nothing.  The  counties  are 
limited  to  two  burgesses  each,  reserving,  however,  to 
James  City,  "  the  metropolis,"  the  right  to  have  a  bur- 
gess of  its  own ;  the  same  privilege  to  be  extended  to 
every  town  of  a  hundred  acres  in  extent  settled  by  a 
hundred  tithable  persons. 

The  late  quarter  courts,  held  by  the  governor  f 
council,  now  reduced  to  three  annually,  receive  the  n«' 


516'-;  HISTORY  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER*  ef  General  Courts.      Subsequently  their  sessions  became 

XV 

' semi-annual.      Commissioners  for  county  courts,  equiv- 

1662-.  alent  to  justices  of  the  peace,  are  limited  to  eight  for 
each  county,  to  be  appointed  by  the  governor.  The 
county  courts  had  the  appointment  of  surveyors  of  high- 
ways, the  levy  of  county  rates,  and  the  enactment  of 
county  by-laws.  Thus  was  the  management  of  county 
as  well  as  of  parish  affairs  taken  from  the  body  of  the 
inhabitants,  and  vested  in  a  few  wealthy  planters,  who 
held  their  appointments  for  life,  or  at  the  pleasure  of  the 
"  governor.  Trial  by  jury  is  established  in  all  cases,  and 
grand  juries  are  now  first  introduced.  There  are  to  be 
provided  by  each  county  a  prison,  pillory,  pair  of  stocks, 
whipping-post,  and  ducking-stool.  Forms  of  proceeding 
are  prescribed  for  the  courts.  No  person  is  to  be  pros- 
ecuted on  claims  from  England,  except  security  for  costs 
be  first  given.  The  prohibition  of  mercenary  attorneys 
seems  now  to  have  been  finally  abandoned  ;  but  "  avari- 
cious and  griping  practitioners  in  physic  and  chirurgery" 
were  still  objects  of  legislation,  and  the  courts  are  au- 
thorized to  examine  them  under  oath,  and  to  cut  down 
their  bills. 

The  two  shilling  duty  per  hogshead  on  exported  to- 
bacco, besides  threepence  fort  money,  is  confirmed  and 
continued.  Out  of  it  the  governor  was  to  receive  annu- 
ally £1000,  $4000,  a  permanent  salary  quite  sufficient 
to  render  him  independent.  The  Assembly,  however,  in- 
creased it  by  an  additional  £200,  voted  from  year  to 
year  out  of  the  colony  levy.  In  aid  of  that  levy,  and  to 
discourage  the  "excessive  abuse  of  rum,"  duties  were  im- 
posed of  sixpence  a  gallon  on  rum,  and  a  penny  a  pound 
on  sugar  imported ;  but,  on  account  of  the  difficulty  of 
collection,  and  the  obstruction  to  trade,  these  duties 
were  soon  repealed.  None  could  retail  strong  drinks 


VIRGINIA  UNDER  CHARLES  II. 

without  a  license,  at  rates  to  be  fixed  by  the  county  com:- 

xv. 
missioners.  ^..^.. 

The  hope  of  introducing  new  branches  of  industry  was  1662. 
not  yet  abandoned.  To  encourage  Colonel  Scarborough's 
salt  works  in  Northampton,  the  importation  of  salt  into 
that  county  is  prohibited.  The  planting  of  mulberry 
trees  was  still  enforced,  and  premiums  are  offered  for 
silk,  for  ships  built,  and  for  woolen  and  linen  cloth  made 
in  the  colony.  Two  acres  of  corn  or  pulse,  or  one  acre 
of  wheat,  were  to  be  cultivated  for  every  tithable.  A 
tan-house,  with  curriers  and  shoe-makers  attached,  was 
to  be  established  at  the  public  expense  in  each  county; 
hides  received  at  a  fixed  price,  to  be  manufactured  into 
shoes,  and  sold  at  rates  prescribed  in  the  statute.  It 
does  not  appear  what  success  attended  this  curious  scheme 
for  introducing  a  kind  of  manufacture  already  "  natural- 
ized," and  successfully  carried  on,  as  we  have  seen,  in 
New  England.  Spanish  pieces  of  eight — that  is,  dol- 
lars— are  declared  current  at  the  rate  of  five  shillings, 
and  the  exportation  of  money  in  sums  above  forty  shil- 
lings is  prohibited.  The  exportation  of  mares  and  sheep 
is  also  forbidden.  Masters  of  vessels  transporting  any 
person  out  of  the  colony  without  a  pass,  are  liable  for  his 
debts. 

The  provisions  of  this  code  respecting  the  Indians  are 
conceived  in  a  more  humane  and  candid  spirit  than  any 
previous  enactments  on  the  same  subject.  The  mutual 
discontents,  complaints,  jealousies,  and  fears  of  the  colo- 
nists and  the  Indians  are  declared  to  proceed  chiefly  from 
the  violent  intrusion  of  divers  English  upon  Indian  lands, 
the  Indians  being  provoked  to  revenge  themselves  by  kill- 
ing the  cattle  and  hogs  of  the  colonists ;  whence  arise 
reports  and  rumors  of  hostile  intentions.  The  law  pro- 
hibiting the  transfer  of  Indian  lands  except  at  quarter 


£;£8  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  courts  had  failed  of  its  purpose.     It  was  easy  to  fright- 
'      en  the  Indians  into  an  acknowledgment  of  sales  they  had 

1662.  never  made,  or  to  cheat  them  by  false  interpreters.    VA11 
future  purchases  from  Indians  were  accordingly  declared 
void,  and  all  persons  encroaching  upon  Indian  lands  were 
to  be  removed.     Indians  might  be  licensed  by  two  just- 
ices to  fish  and  collect  oysters  and  wild  fruits  within  the 
English  bounds,  but  those  so  licensed  were  to  have  cer- 
tain badges,  by  which  they  might  be  identified  if  they 
did  mischief.     None  were  to  trade  with  the  Indians  with- 
out license  from  the  governor.     No  Indians  entertained 
as  servants  were  to  be  sold  into  slavery,  or  for  a  longer 
period  than  English  indented  servants  of  a   like   age. 
Several  persons,  apparently  of  wealth  and  consideration, 
were  heavily  fined  by  the  Assembly  for  wrongs  done  to 
the  Indians  and  intrusions  upon  them.      By  subsequent 
acts,  shortly  after,  if  a  white  man  were  murdered,  the 

1663.  inhabitants  of  the  nearest  Indian  town  were  to  be  held 
1665.  responsible.     The  appointment  of  their  own  chiefs  was 

taken  from  the  Indians  and  conferred  upon  the  governor, 
and  any  refusing  to  obey  the  chiefs  thus  appointed  were 
to  be  treated  as  enemies  and  rebels.  There  exists,  also, 

1660.  an  order  of  a  little  earlier  date,  authorizing  the  seizure 
and  sale  "  into  a  foreign  country"  of  so  many  Indians 
of  a  certain  tribe  as  might  be  necessary  to  produce  com- 
pensation for  damages  with  which  they  were  charged, 
provided  they  refused  satisfaction  otherwise. 

A  curious  instance  of  collision  with  Massachusetts 
was  brought,  at  this  same  session,  to  the  Assembly's  no- 

1661.  tice.     The  indented  servant  of  "William  Drummond,  an 
inhabitant   of  Virginia,  had  been   discharged  from  his 
master's  service  by  "  the  court  of  Boston,  in  New  En- 
gland," without  any  sufficient  reason,  it  was  thought, 
though  probably  on  the  authority  of  Deuteronomy,  chap. 


MARYLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.       5^9 

xxiii.,  ver.  15  :   "  Thou  shalt  not  deliver  unto  his  mas-  CHAPTER 

xv 
ter  the  servant  which  is  escaped  from  his  master  nntn 

thee."  The  governor  and  council  had  written  to  Boston  1662. 
about  it,  but  had  received  no  satisfactory  answer.  In 
this  state  of  the  case,  the  Assembly  ordered,  "  as  the 
least  of  ill  expedients,"  for  the  master's  indemnification, 
that  the  value  of  £40  should  be  seized  out  of  the  prop- 
erty of  some  citizens  of  Massachusetts  then  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  Virginia. 

Upon  the  restoration  of  the  proprietary  authority  in  1660. 
Maryland,  the  old  system  of  religious  toleration  had  been 
re-established ;  but  it  did  not  avail  the  Quakers.  Preach- 
ers of  that  sect  were  ordered  to  be  apprehended  and  whip- 
ped, not,  indeed,  as  heretics,  but  as  "vagabonds,  who 
dissuade  the  people  from  complying  with  military  disci- 
pline, from  holding  offices,  giving  testimony,  and  serving 
as  jurors." 

A  mint  was  now  set  up  in  Maryland,  which  contin- 
ued in  operation  for  the  next  thirty  years.  A  tonnage 
duty,  for  the  sole  benefit  of  the  proprietary,  was  also 
imposed  upon  all  vessels  arriving  in  the  colony — a  per- 
petual item  henceforward  of  proprietary  revenue. 

Charles  Calvert,  then   a  very  young  man,  son  and 
heir-apparent  of  the  proprietary,  soon  arrived  in  Mary-  1662. 
land  with  a  commission  as  governor. 

Berkeley  returned  about  the  same  time ;  and  the 
Virginia  Assembly,  at  a  session  held  shortly  after,  in  Dec. 
compliance  with  suggestions  which  he  had  brought  out 
from  England,  passed  an  act  for  converting  Jamestown, 
which  still  remained  a  paltry  hamlet,  into  a  city  of 
thirty-two  brick  houses.  Each  of  the  seventeen  coun- 
ties was  required  to  build  one  house,  for  which  laborers 
might  be  impressed  at  certain  fixed  rates.  For  the  en- 
couragement of  private  persons  to  undertake  the  others, 


.520  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  they  were  to  receive  from  the  public  for  every  house 
built  a  reward  of  ten  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco,  with 

1662.  exclusive  rights  to  build  stores,  and  lots  to  build  them 
on.     To  meet  the  expenses  of  this  scheme,  a  general 
poll  tax  of  thirty  pounds  of  tobacco  was  imposed.     All 
persons  settling  in  the  town  were  to  be  privileged  from 
arrest  for  two  years ;  and  all  tobacco  made  in  the  three 
neighboring  counties  was  to  be  brought  to  Jamestown, 
and  stored  there  for  shipment.     It  was  designed  to  es- 
tablish, by  a  similar  process,  other  towns  on  the  York 
River,  the  Rappahannoc,  the  Potomac,  and  the  eastern 
shore. 

At  this  same  session  an  act  was  passed,  the  first  stat- 
ute of  Virginia  which  attempts  to  give  a  legislative  ba- 
sis to  the  system  of  hereditary  servitude.  The  right 
to  hold  heathen  Africans  and  their  posterity  as  slaves 
would  seem  to  have  been  thought  so  fully  sanctioned  by 
the  English  law  as  to  require  no  special  colonial  legis- 
lation. But  mulatto  children  had  been  born  in  the  col- 
ony. Their  parentage,  on  one  side  or  the  other,  must 
be  Christian.  What  should  be  their  condition  ?  The 
English  courts  had  held,  in  relation  to  serfdom,  that  the 
condition  of  the  child  must  be  determined  by  that  of  the 
father ;  and  that  all  children  not  bora  in  lawful  wedlock 
must  be  esteemed  free,  as  having  no  legal  fathers — doc- 
trines which  had  gone  far  to  bring  serfdom  to  an  end. 
By  a  very  questionable  exercise  of  authority,  hardly  to 
be  reconciled  with  their  late  professions  of  reverence  for 
the  law  of  England,  the  Virginia  Assembly  saw  fit  to 
adopt  the  rule  of  the  civil  law,  so  much  more  convenient 
for  slaveholders,  by  enacting  that  children  should  be 
held  bond  or  free,  "  according  to  the  condition  of  the 
mother." 

1663.  The  subject  of  slavery  attracted,  also,  the  attention 


MARYLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.       521 

of  the  Maryland  Legislature.     It  was  provided,  by  the  CHAPTER 
first  section  of  an  act  now  passed,  that  "  all  negroes  and         ' 
other  slaves  within  this  province,  and  all  negroes  and  1663. 
other  slaves  to  be  hereafter  imported  into  this  province, 
shall  serve  during  life ;  and  all  children  born  of  any  ne- 
gro or  other  slave,  shall  be  slaves,  as  their  fathers  were, 
for  the  term  of  their  lives."      The  second  section  recites 
that  «  divers  free-born  English  women,  forgetful  of  their 
free  condition,  and  to  the  disgrace  of  our  nation,  do  in- 
termarry with  negro   slaves ;"  and  for   deterring  from 
such  "  shameful  matches,"  it  enacts  that,  during  their 
husbands'  lives,  white  women  so  intermarrying  shall  be 
servants  to  the  masters  of  their  husbands,  and  that  the 
issue  of  such  marriages  shall  be  slaves  for  life. 

Shortly  after  Berkeley's  return,  a  conspiracy  among 
some  indented  servants — betrayed,  however,  by  one  of 
the  conspirators  in  season  to  prevent  mischief — occa- 
sioned a  great  alarm  in  Virginia.  A  guard  was  ap- 
pointed for  the  governor  and  council ;  and  the  Assembly 
voted  to  observe  the  13th  of  September,  "  the  day  this 
villainous  plot  should  have  been  put  in  execution,"  as 
a  perpetual  holiday,  in  memory  of  the  escape  of  the 
colony. 

The  severe  persecuting  laws  against  the  Quakers,  left 
out  of  the  new  code,  were  now  again  re-enacted.  By 
an  act  of  the  previous  session,  all  who  refused,  "out  of 
averseness  to  the  orthodox  established  religion,  or  the 
new-fangled  conceits  of  their  own  heretical  inventions," 
to  have  their  children  baptized  by  "the  lawful  minister," 
had  been  subjected  to  a  fine  of  two  thousand  pounds  of 
tobacco.  One  of  the  burgesses,  accused  of  Anabaptist 
and  Quaker  opinions,  was  expelled  the  house.  This  re- 
ligious persecution  seems  to  have  occasioned  an  emigra- 
tion to  the  banks  of  the  Chowan,  where  a  few  noncon- 


522  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  formist  settlers  from  Virginia,  founders  of  North  Caro- 

XV 

lina,  had  already  established  themselves. 

1663.  Another  curious  old  law,  originally  passed  during 
Berkeley's  former  administration,  was  now  re-enacted : 
"  Whereas  it  is  frequent  with  divers  inhabitants  of  this 
country  to  entertain  strangers,  with  their  horses,  without 
making  any  agreement  with  the  party  what  he  shall  pay 
for  his  accommodations,  which,  if  the  party  live,  causeth 
many  litigious  suits,  and,  if  the  stranger  die,  lays  a 
gap  open  to  many  avaricious  persons  to  ruin  the  estate 
of  the  person  deceased — for  remedy  for  the  future,  be  it 
enacted,  that  no  person  not  making  a  positive  agreement 
with  any  one  he  shall  entertain  into  his  house  for  diet 
or  storage,  shall  recover  any  thing  against  any  one  so 
entertained,  or  against  his  estate,  but  that  every  one 
shall  be  reputed  to  entertain  those  of  courtesy  with 
whom  they  make  not  a  certain  agreement." 

To  raise  the  price  of  tobacco  by  some  legislative  inter- 
ference had  long  been  a  favorite  theory  in  Virginia. 
The  means  proposed  was  a  "  stint"  or  "  cessation,"  an 
omission,  that  is,  to  plant  for  a  year  or  more.  But,  to 
carry  out  this  scheme,  it  was  necessary  to  get  Maryland 
to  come  into  the  arrangement.  After  much  negotiation, 

1666.  that  province  passed  an  act  for  the  purpose,  and  a  "  cessa- 
tion" for  a  year  was  arranged,  during  which  debtors  were 
to  have  the  privilege  of  paying  only  one  half  of  their 
tobacco  debts,  for  which  grain  and  other  produce  were 
also  made  a  legal  tender.  Before  this  act  came  into  oper- 
ation, the  whole  scheme  was  defeated  by  the  proprietary 
of  Maryland,  who  objected  to  it  as  injurious  to  the  poorer 
planters,  and  to  the  king's  revenue  as  well  as  his  own. 

The  "  nakedness  of  the  country,"  occasioned  by  the  low 
price  of  tobacco  and  the  defeat  of  this  scheme  for  rais- 
ing its  price,  led  to  new  legislative  efforts  for  the  intro- 


VIRGINIA  UNDER  CHARLES  II. 


523 


duction  of  manufactures.     Every  county  was  to  set  up  CHAPTER 
a  loom  at  its  own  expense,  and  to  provide  a  weaver.          ' 
The  requirement  to  plant  mulberry  trees,  in  force  since  1666. 
the  early  days  of  the  colony,  not  having  been  found  to 
produce  the  desired  effect,  was  now  at  last  abandoned. 
The  rewards  hitherto   offered  for  silk,  cloths,  and  the 
building  of  vessels,  were  also  withdrawn. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  Berkeley  sent  out  an  ex- 
ploring party,  the  first  that  crossed  the  Blue  Ridge  and 
penetrated  into  the  valley  beyond  —  an  enterprise  not 
again  repeated  for  near  fifty  years. 

The  breaking  out  of  the  Dutch  war  had  occasioned  con- 
siderable alarm  in  Virginia.  James  River  was  entered  by 
Dutch  privateers,  and  trading  vessels  were  seized  there. 
Under  the  influence  of  this  alarm,  forts  were  built  at  Nan- 
semond  and  James  City,  and  on  the  York,  Rappahannoc, 
and  Potomac,  on  which  were  mounted  some  thirty  pieces 
of  cannon,  partly  purchased  by  the  colony,  and  the  rest 
sent  out  by  the  king.  But  the  expense  of  keeping  up 
these  forts  proved  a  heavy  burden  to  the  colony. 

The  lawfulness  of  holding  Africans  as  slaves  was  sup- 
posed to  rest,  in  part  at  least,  on  the  fact  that  they  were 
heathen.  But  of  the  negroes  brought  to  Virginia,  some 
had  been  converted  and  baptized,  and  this  was  the  case 
to  a  still  greater  extent  with  those  born  in  the  colony. 
By  what  right  were  these  Christians  held  as  slaves  ? 
This  question  having  been  raised  in  Virginia,  the  As- 
sembly came  to  the  relief  of  the  masters  by  enacting  that  1667 
negroes,  though  converted  and  baptized,  should  not  there- 
by become  free.  At  the  same  session,  in  remarkable  de- 
viation from  the  English  law,  it  was  also  enacted,  that 
killing  slaves  by  extremity  of  correction  should  not  be 
esteemed  felony,  "  since  it  can  not  be  presumed  that  pre- 
pense malice  should  induce  any  man  to  destroy  his  own 


524*  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  estate."      The   prohibition   against  holding  Indians   as 
'      slaves  was  also  relaxed  as  to  those  brought  in  by  water, 

1670.  a  new  law  having  enacted  "  that  all  servants,  not  being 
Christians,  imported  by  shipping,  shall  be  slaves  for  life." 
About  this  period,  and  afterward,  a  considerable  number 
of  Indian  slaves  seem  to  have  been  imported  into  Virginia 
and  New  England  from  the  West  Indies  and  the  Spanish 
Main. 

As  a  necessary  pendent  to  the  slave  code,  the  system 
now  also  began  of  subjecting  freed  slaves  to  civil  disa- 
bilities. It  had  already  been  enacted  that  female  serv- 
ants employed  in  field  labor  should  be  rated  and  taxed 
as  tithables.  Negro  women,  though  free,  were  now  sub- 
jected to  the  same  tax.  Free  negroes  and  Indians  were 
also  disqualified  to  purchase  or  hold  white  servants. 

While  the  slave  code  was  thus  extended,  the  privileg- 
es and  political  power  of  the  poorer  whites  underwent  a 
corresponding  diminution.  During  the  period  of  the 
Commonwealth,  the  Virginia  Assemblies  had  been  chos- 
en for  only  two  years;  but  this  privilege  of  frequent 
elections  was  no  longer  enjoyed.  The  Assembly  of 
1661  was  still  in  existence,  such  vacancies  as  occurred 
being  filled  from  time  to  time  by  special  elections. 
Even  this  small  privilege  was  begrudged  to  the  poorer 
freemen  ;  and,  on  the  usual  pretexts  of  tumultuous  elec- 
tions, and  want  of  sufficient  discretion  in  the  poorer  vot- 
ers, it  was  now  enacted  that  none  but  householders  and 
freeholders  should  have  a  voice  in  the  election  of  bur- 
gesses. 

Some  replies  of  Berkeley  to  a  series  of  questions  sub- 
mitted to  him  by  the  plantation  committee  of  the  Privy 

1671.  Council  give  quite  a  distinct  picture  of  the  colony  as  it 
then  was.     The  population  is  estimated  at  40,000,  in- 
cluding 2000  "black  slaves,"   and   6000    "Christian 


VIRGINIA  UNDER  CHARLES  II. 


525 


servants,"  of  whom  about  1500  were  imported  yearly,  CHAPTER 

principally  English.      Since  the  exclusion  of  Dutch  ves- __ 

sels  by  the  acts  of  navigation,  the  importation  of  negroes  1671. 
had  been  very  limited  ;  not  above  two  or  three  ship-loads 
had  arrived  in  seven  years.  The  English  trade  to  Afri- 
ca, a  monopoly  in  the  hands  of  the  Royal  African  Com- 
pany, does  not  seem  to  have  been  prosecuted  with  much 
spirit ;  and  such  supply  of  slaves  as  that  company  fur- 
nished was  chiefly  engrossed  by  Jamaica  and  the  other  su- 
gar colonies.  Tobacco,  to  the  quantity  of  fifteen  or  twenty 
thousand  hogsheads  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  each, 
is  represented  by  Berkeley  as  the  only  exportable  commod- 
ity, for  the  transportation  of  which,  and  the  supply  of  the 
colony  with  imported  goods,  there  came  yearly  from  En- 
gland and  Ireland  some  eighty  ships,  besides  a  few  ketches 
from  New  England.  The  Navigation  Act  is  complain- 
ed of  as  cutting  off  the  market  for  staves,  timber,  and 
corn ;  but  this  could  only  be  by  excluding  Dutch  and 
other  foreign  ships  from  the  colony  ;  for,  notwithstand- 
ing the  navigation  acts,  the  Virginians  remained  at  full 
liberty  to  send  those  articles  wherever  they  pleased. 
Unluckily,  they  had  no  shipping.  "  There  is  a  gov- 
ernor and  sixteen  counselors,  who  have  from  his  sacred 
majesty  a  commission  of  oyer  and  terminer,  who  judge 
and  determine  all  causes  that  are  above  £15  ster- 
ling ;  for  what  is  under,  there  are  particular  courts  in 
every  county,  which  are  twenty  in  number.  Every 
year,  at  least,  the  Assembly  is  called,  before  whom  lie 
appeals  ;  and  this  Assembly  is  composed  of  two  burgess- 
es out  of  every  county.  These  lay  the  necessary  taxes, 
as  their  exigencies  require."  It  is  added,  however,  that 
the  Indian  neighbors  of  the  colony  are  «  absolutely  sub- 
jected, so  that  there  is  no  fear  of  them."  "  We  have 
forty-eight  parishes,"  adds  the  governor,  "and  our  min- 


526  HISTORY   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  isters  are  well  paid,  and  by  my  consent  should  be  better, 
_  if  they  would  pray  oftener  and  preach  less.     But  as  of 

1671.  all  other  commodities,  so  of  this,  the  worst  are  sent  us, 
and  we  have  few  that  we  can  boast  of  since  the  persecu- 
tion, in  Cromwell's  tyranny,  drove  divers  worthy  men 
hither.     But  I  thank  God  there  are  no  free  schools  nor 
printing,  and  I  hope  we  shall  not  have  these  hundred 
years ;  for  learning  has  brought  disobedience,  and  here- 
sy, and  sects  into  the  world,  and  printing  has  divulged 
them,  and  libels  against  the  best  government :  God  keep 
us  from  both !" 

1672.  No  .opposition  appears  to  have  been  made  in  Virginia 
to  the  establishment  of  a  crown  custom-house  to  collect 
the  duties  imposed  by  act  of  Parliament  on  the  shipment 
of  u  enumerated  articles"  from  one  colony  to  another. 
The  Virginians  might  deem  that  act  to  be  aimed  rather 
at  the  New  Englanders  than  at  them.     Yet  grievances 
from  England  were    not    wanting.      Public    attention 
was  soon  much  engrossed  by  some  proceedings  on  the 
part  of  the  king,  which  might  lead  the  Virginians  to 
question  whether  even  the  "  tyranny  of  Cromwell"  were 
not  quite  as  tolerable,  on  the  whole,  as  the  rule  of  "his 
sacred  majesty"  Charles  II.      The  royal  quit-rents,  in- 
stead of  being  applied  to  the  benefit  of  the  colony,  had 
been  given  away,  for  a  term  of  years,  to  one  Colonel 
Norwood,  whom  Berkeley  calls  a  "  deserving  servant  of 
the  crown  ;"  but  wherein  his  desert  consisted  does  not  ap- 
pear.    The  whole  "  northern  neck,"  that  is,  the  peninsula 
between  the  Rappahannoc  and  the  Potomac,  had  been 
granted  to  the  Earl  of  St.  Alban's,  Lord  Culpepper,  and 
others,  without  even  excepting  the  plantations  already 

1673.  settled  there.     Finally,  the  entire  colony  was  assigned, 
Feb.  25.  £or  thirty-one  years,  to  Lords  Culpepper  and  Arlington, 

including  all  quit-rents,  escheats,  the  power  to  grant  lands 


VIRGINIA  UNDER  CHARLES  II.  ££7 

and  to  erect  new  counties,  the  presentation  to  all  church-  CHAPTEB 
es,  and  the  nomination  of  sheriffs,  escheators,  and  sur-          ' 
veyors.     These  noblemen  had  a  very  bad  character  for  1673 
rapacity.     Arlington  was  one  of  the  king's  ministers,  and 
a  member  of  the  famous  "  Cabal."     They  could  have  no 
object  in  obtaining  this  grant  except  to  enrich  themselves 
out  of  the  colony.     Perhaps  they  might  question  existing 
land- titles,  of  which  some,  it  is  probable,  would  hardly 
bear  examination.    The  Assembly  was  alarmed,  and  three 
agents,  Colonel  Francis  Moryson,  late  acting  governor, 
Mr.   Secretary    Ludwell,    and    Major-general    Thomas 
Smith,  were  dispatched  to  England  to  solicit  a  modifica-  1674. 
tion  of  this  extraordinary  grant,  or  to  purchase  it  up  for    SePt- 
the  benefit  of  the  colony.     To  provide  funds  for  this  pur- 
chase, a  tax  was  imposed  of  a  hundred  pounds  of  tobacco 
per  poll,  to  be  collected  by  two  annual  installments.     To 
raise  the  ready  money,  this  tax  was  to  be  farmed  out  at 
the  rate  of  eight  shillings,  about  two  dollars,  the  hundred, 
that  amount  to  be  paid  down  at  once  by  the  undertak- 
ers.    As  a  further  and  quite  original  means  of  filling  the 
empty  treasury,  a  tax  of  from  thirty  to  seventy  pounds 
of  tobacco  was  imposed  upon  every  unsuccessful  suitor  in 
any  of  the  colony  courts. 

Besides  this  business  of  buying  out  Lords  Culpepper 
and  Arlington,  the  commissioners  were  also  instructed  to 
solicit  a  royal  charter  for  the  colony,  confirming  all  land- 
titles,  giving  to  the  governor  and  council  a  general  power 
as  a  criminal  court,  without  the  necessity  of  a  special 
commission  of  oyer  and  terminer,  and  guaranteeing  to 
the  Assembly  all  the  authority  it  had  hitherto  exercised. 
The  proposed  charter  was  approved  by  the  solicitor  and  1675. 
attorney  general ;  the  plantation  committee  reported  in  Nov>  16< 
favor  of  it ;  and  the  king  ordered  it  to  be  put  into  form. 
It  encountered,  however,  some  unexplained  delays  in  pass- 


528  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  ing  the  seals.  Its  progress  was  finally  cut  short  by  news 
'  from  Virginia  of  a  nature  to  show  that  the  absence  of 
1675.  free  schools  was  by  no  means  so  absolute  a  guarantee 
against  discontent  and  rebellion  as  Berkeley  had  sup- 
posed. 

Discontents  in  Virginia  had  reached,  in  fact,  a  high 
pitch.  The  colony,  county,  and  parish  levies  were  all 
raised  by  poll  taxes.  Those  who  paid  these  taxes  had 
little  or  no  voice  in  imposing  them.  There  had  been  no 
general  election  since  the  Restoration,  and  even  in  local 
elections  to  fill  vacancies  in  the  Assembly,  a  consider- 
able part  of  the  freemen  had  lost  their  right  to  vote. 
The  taxes  imposed  to  keep  up  the  forts,  and  the  late 
levy  to  buy  out  Culpepper  and  Arlington,  caused  great 
discontents,  aggravated  by  the  declining  price  of  tobacco. 
In  the  selection  of  vestrymen  and  county  commissioners 
the  people  had  no  voice  at  all.  These  local  dignitaries, 
by  long  continuance  in  office,  had  grown  supercilious 
and  arbitrary.  The  compensation  to  the  members  of 
Assembly  had  been  lately  fixed  at  one  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds  of  tobacco  per  day,  besides  near  as  much  more 
for  horses,  servants,  and  boatmen.  This  amount  was 
deemed  excessive  by  the  tax-payers,  who  accused  the 
members  of  protracting  their  sessions  for  the  mere  sake 
of  increasing  their  pay.  The  public  dissatisfaction  had 
1674.  already  shown  itself  in  popular  disturbances,  "  suppress- 
ed by  proclamation  and  the  advice  of  some  discreet  per- 
sons." Nothing,  however,  was  wanting,  except  an  occa- 
sion and  a  leader,  to  throw  the  whole  community  into  a 
flame.  An  occasion  was  soon  found  in  an  Indian  war ; 
a  leader  presented  himself  in  Nathaniel  Bacon. 

Bacon  was  a  young  man,  not  yet  thirty,  lately  arrived 
from  London,  where  he  had  studied  law  in  the  Temple. 
He  had  estates  and  influential  connections  in  Virginia. 


VIRGINIA  UNDER  CHARLES  II. 

His  uncle,  of  the   same  name,   of  whom  he  was  pre-  CHAPTER 

xv 
sumptive  heir,  held  a  seat  in  the  council — an  honor  to  ______ 

which  the  young  Bacon  was  also  soon  admitted.  1675. 

The  Indian  war  seems  to  have  originated  in  the  move- 
ments of  the  Senecas,  one  of  the  clans  of  the  Five  Nations, 
who  improved  the  interval  of  a  short  peace  with  Canada 
to  attack  their  Southern  neighbors  the  Susquehannas. 
The  Susquehannas  were  precipitated  on  the  settlements 
of  Maryland.  War  followed,  and  aid  was  asked  and 
given  by  the  Virginia  planters  of  the  northern  neck. 
Among  these  planters  was  one  John  Washington,  an 
emigrant  from  the  north  of  England,  for  some  eighteen 
years  past  a  resident  in  Virginia,  founder  of  a  family 
which  produced,  a  century  afterward,  the  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  American  armies.  A  fort  of  the  Sus- 
quehannas, on  the  north  side  of  the  Potomac,  was  be- 
sieged by  a  party  of  Virginians  under  his  leadership, 
and  that  of  Brent  and  Mason.  Some  chiefs,  sent  out 
by  the  Indians  to  treat  of  peace,  were  seized  and  treacher- 
ously slain.  The  besieged  party  made  a  desperate  resist- 
ance, and,  having  presently  escaped,  revenged  the  outrage 
on  their  envoys  by  many  barbarities  on  the  Virginia 
planters.  The  whole  frontier  was  soon  in  alarm. 

The  furious  and  destructive  Indian  war,  headed  by 
King  Philip,  raging  at  this  very  time  in  New  England, 
no  doubt  tended  to  increase  the  terror  of  the  Virginians. 
By  suggesting  the  idea  of  a  general  conspiracy  for  the 
destruction  of  the  whites,  it  exposed  even  the  most  friend- 
ly tribes  to  be  suspected  as  enemies.  The  Virginia  In- 
dians, or  some  of  them,  became  hostile,  or  were  thought 
so.  The  peace  which  had  lasted  for  thirty  years  was 
broken.  Numerous  depredations,  at  various  points,  oc- 
casioned no  little  excitement  in  the  colony.  The  people 
on  the  frontier,  collected  in  garrisoned  houses,  never  stir- 
I.  L  L 


530  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  red  out  unarmed.      "  The  Indians  were  seen  in  small  par- 

XV 

.  ties  lurking  throughout  the  land."      The  Indian  traders, 

1675.  accused  of  having  supplied  the  Indians  with  guns  and 
ammunition,  became  objects  of  great  popular  detestation. 
The  governor,  who  enjoyed  a  certain  per  centage  on  the 
Indian  traffic,  for  which  he  had  the  sole  right  of  granting 
licenses,  shared,  also,  a  part  of  this  unpopularity,  increas- 
ed, there  is  reason  to  believe,  by  his  energetic  condem- 
nation of  the  treachery  practiced  on  the  Susqueh annas, 
and  his  disposition  to  shield  the  peaceful  Indians  from  the 
indiscriminating  rage  of  the  colonists. 

Sir  Henry  Chicheley  had  arrived  in  Virginia  a  year  or 
two  before,  with  a  commission  as  deputy  governor.  He 
set  out  at  the  head  of  a  volunteer  expedition  to  attack 
the  Indians,  but  was  speedily  recalled.  The  Assembly 

1676.  met,  and  taking  into  "sad  and  serious  consideration" 
March.  ^ne  tt  sun(jry  murders,  surprises,  and  many  depredations" 

lately  committed,  they  declared  war  against  all  Indians 
"  who  are  notoriously  known,  or  shall  be  discovered  to 
have  committed  the  murders,  surprises,  or  depredations 
aforesaid,  their  fautors,  aiders,  and  abettors,"  and  against 
all  other  "  suspected  Indians"  who  refused  to  deliver 
sufficient  hostages,  or  to  aid  and  assist  in  the  pursuit, 
discovery,  and  destruction  of  the  hostile. 

As  this  was  to  be  a  war  "  with  an  enemy  whose  re- 
tirements are  not  easily  discovered,  so  that  a  flying 
army  may  not  be  so  useful  at  present,"  the  Assembly 
ordered  the  enlistment  of  five  hundred  men,  a  quarter 
part  horsemen,  "  to  be  drawn  out  of  the  midland  and 
most  secure  parts  of  the  country,"  "to  be  entered  into 
standing  pay,  and  placed  at  the  heads  of  the  rivers  and 
other  places  fronting  on  the  enemy."  For  the  better 
discovery  of  the  enemy's  approaches,  the  horsemen  were 
to  range  constantly  between  the  garrisons,  so  as  to  meet 


VIRGINIA  UNDER  CHARLES  II. 


531 


each  other,  if  possible.      The  foot  "  were  to  be  in  action  CHAPTER 

xv 
at  the  discretion  of  the  commander  for  securing  the  arU 

jacent  plantations."  Each  garrison  was  to  be  allowed  1676. 
four  Indians  as  guides.  Commissioners  were  appointed 
in  each  county  to  impress  the.  necessary  men,  horses, 
boats,  and  provisions,  and  additional  commissioners  "  to 
use  Indians  in  the  war,  and  to  require  and  receive  hos- 
tages from  them."  Each  post  was  to  have  a  "  chirur- 
geon,"  and  a  "  convenient  quantity  of  medicines,  salves, 
&c.,  to  the  value  of  five  pounds  sterling  for  every  hund- 
red men."  Provisions  were  to  be  furnished  at  the  rate 
of  five  bushels  of  shelled  corn,  and  fifty  pounds  of  pork 
or  eighty  of  beef,  for  each  man,  for  each  term  of  four 
months.  Horsemen  were  to  be  paid  at  the  rate  of  two 
thousand  pounds  of  tobacco  a  year,  "  and  cask,"  reckoned 
at  eight  per  cent,  additional.  Footmen  were  to  have  fif- 
teen hundred  pounds  per  year ;  corporals  and  drummers, 
one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  per  month  ;  sergeants,  two 
hundred  and  fifty  pounds  per  month  ;  ensigns,  three 
hundred  pounds ;  lieutenants,  four  hundred  pounds ; 
captains,  six  hundred  pounds  per  month,  "  and  cask." 
Horses  killed  or  dying  in  the  service  were  to  be  paid  for. 
"  Due  consideration  by  the  Grand  Assembly"  was  also 
promised  of  the  "  indigent  families  of  such  as  happen  to 
be  slain,  and  of  the  persons  and  families  of  those  who  shall 
be  maimed  or  disabled  in  this  war."  The  remaining 
forces  in  the  frontier  counties  were  to  be  enrolled,  and 
might  be  led  to  the  relief  of  any  fort  attacked,  but  no  of- 
fensive operations  were  to  be  undertaken  without  spe- 
cial leave  of  the  governor — a  prohibition  which  the  re- 
sult of  the  late  expedition  against  the  Susquehannas 
might  well  justify.  Friendly  Indians  were  to  have 
11  three  watch-coats"  for  every  prisoner  taken,  and  one 
for  every  head  brought  in. 


532  HISTORY  OP   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  The  "  articles  of  war,"  made  a  part  of  this  act,  are 
XV'  .sufficiently  stringent.  Any  soldier,  "drunk  or  sober," 
1676.  who  shall  "  blaspheme  the  name  of  God,"  or  "  deride 
or  contemn  God's  word  or  sacraments,"  is  to  "  run  the 
gauntlet  through  a  hundred  men,  or  thereabouts,"  and 
if  the  offense  be  repeated,  to  be  "bored  through  the 
tongue  with  a  hot  iron."  Death  is  to  be  the  punish- 
ment of  doing  any  hurt  to  an  officer,  or  lifting  arms 
against  him  ;  of  drawing  sword  to  do  mischief  after 
watch  is  set ;  of  making  a  false  alarm  in  the  camp ;  of 
shooting  off  a  musket  in  the  night-time  ;  of  being  found 
asleep  or  drunk  on  the  watch  ;  of  desertion  ;  "  running 
from  his  colors ;"  or  giving  intelligence  to  the  enemy. 
Swearing  and  drunkenness,  on  the  third  offense,  are  to 
be  punished  by  "  riding  the  wooden  horse  for  an  hour, 
with  a  musket  tied  to  each  foot,"  and  by  "  asking  for- 
giveness at  the  next  meeting  for  prayer  and  preaching." 
Public  prayers  are  to  be  duly  read  in  the  field  every 
morning  and  evening.  The  act  winds  up  by  directing 
that  the  last  Fridays  in  April  and  May  be  set  apart  as 
"  days  of  public  fasting  and  humiliation,"  humbly  to 
implore  "  the  divine  assistance  and  blessing  upon  our  en- 
deavors in  this  war." 

And  "  whereas  the  country's  preparations  for  war  in 
likelihood  may  cause  a  more  than  ordinary  expense  of 
provisions,"  by  another  act  the  exportation  of  corn  is 
prohibited.  A  third  act  makes  it  death  to  sell  powder 
and  shot  to  the  Indians.  The  late  traders  are  wholly 
excluded  from  any  further  Indian  traffic.  Sensible,  how- 
ever, "  that  such  friendly  Indians  as  are  among  us  in 
peace,  if  they  be  not  supplied  with  watch-coats,  hoes  and 
axes  to  tend  their  corn  and  fence  their  ground,  must  of 
necessity  perish  of  famine  or  live  on  rapine,"  to  prevent 
this  evil,  the  Assembly  authorize  a  trade  by  "some  sober 


VIRGINIA    UNDER   CHARLES  II. 


533 


persons,  not  exceeding  five,"  in  each  county,  to  be  nom-  CHAPTER 
inated  by  the  county  courts. 

In  the  present  excited  state  of  the  public  mind,  this  1676 
scheme  of  defense  was  not  satisfactory.  The  governor 
was  accused  of  leaning  toward  the  Indians;  the  forts 
were  denounced  as  a  useless  burden ;  and  offensive  ope- 
rations were  loudly  demanded.  This  discontented  party 
included  "  many  gentlemen  of  good  condition,"  "  persons 
of  the  greatest  quality  in  the  province."  Bacon,  to 
whom  the  governor  had  refused  a  commission  to  beat  up 
for  volunteers  against  the  Indians,  was  particularly  for- 
ward. He  gave  out  that,  on  news  of  any  further  depre- 
dations, he  should  march  against  the  Indians,  commis- 
sion or  no  commission.  An  attack  upon  his  own  plan- 
tation, near  the  falls  of  James  River,  afforded  him  speedy 
occasion  to  carry  his  threats  into  effect. 

Provoked  at  this  disregard  of  his  authority,  the  gov- 
ernor put  forth  a  proclamation,  depriving  Bacon  of  his  April 
seat  in  the  council,  and  denouncing  as  rebels  all  his 
company  who  should  not  return  within  a  limited  day. 
"  Those  of  estates"  obeyed ;  but  Bacon,  and  fifty-seven 
others,  proceeded  onward  till  their  provisions  were  near 
spent.  Approaching  a  fort  of  friendly  Indians,  they 
asked  provisions,  offering  payment.  The  Indians  prom- 
ised fairly,  but  put  them  off  till  the  third  day,  by  which 
time  their  stores  were  completely  exhausted.  Finding 
themselves  in  danger  of  starvation,  and  suspecting  that 
the  Indians  had  been  instigated  to  their  procrastinations 
by  private  messages  from  the  governor,  Bacon's  men 
waded,  shoulder  deep,  through  a  stream  that  covered  the 
fort,  entreating  victuals,  and  tendering  pay.  A  shot  from 
the  bank  they  had  left  presently  killed  one  of  their  num- 
ber. Apprehending  an  attack  in  the  rear,  "  they  fired 
the  palisadoes,  stormed  and  burned  the  fort  and  cabins, 


534  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  and,  with  the  loss  of  three  English,  slew  one  hundred 
xv'  and  fifty  Indians  "  Such  was  Bacon's  own  account  of 
1676.  this  exploit. 

The  governor  had  marched  in  pursuit  of  Bacon,  but 
was  soon  stopped  short  by  disturbances  in  the  lower 
counties,  instigated  by  Drummond  and  Lawrence,  res- 
idents at  Jamestown.  "  The  people  drew  together  by 
beat  of  drum,  declaring  against  forts  as  an  intolerable 
pressure,  and  of  no  use ;"  nor  was  it  found  possible,  to 
appease  these  tumults  except  by  dissolving  the  old  As- 
sembly and  calling  a  new  one. 

Bacon  was  elected  a  burgess  for  the  county  of  Hen- 
rico ;  but,  as  he  approached  Jamestown  in  a  sloop  with 
thirty  armed  followers,  he  was  intercepted  by  an  armed 
ship.  Shots  being  fired  at  him,  he  fled  up  the  river, 
but  was  presently  arrested  by  the  sheriff  of  Jamestown, 
and  carried  prisoner  before  the  governor,  with  some  twen- 
ty of  his  followers. 

Neither  "  the  ill  temper  of  the  new  Assembly,  which 
was  much  infected  with  Bacon's  principles,"  nor  the 
discontents  still  prevailing  out  of  doors,  would  admit  of 
harsh  measures ;  nor  does  it  appear,  indeed,  that  at  this 
moment  the  governor  was  inclined  to  severity.  By 
the  intervention  of  the  culprit's  uncle  and  his  other 
friends,  a  reconciliation  was  speedily  arranged.  In  con- 
sideration of  a  pardon  which  the  governor  had  prom- 
June  7.  ised,  four  days  after  the  meeting  of  the  Assembly,  Ba- 
con, placed  at  the  bar,  confessed,  on  his  knees,  "  his  late 
unlawful,  mutinous,  and  rebellious  practices ;"  begged 
pardon  therefor ;  desired  the  council  and  burgesses  to 
mediate  for  him ;  and  proffered  his  whole  estate  in  Vir- 
ginia as  security  for  his  good  behavior.  An  act  was 
also  passed  for  putting  in  force  the  laws  of  England  for 
the  suppression  of  riots  and  tumults,  of  which,  as  the 


VIRGINIA  UNDER  CHARLES  II. 


535 


preamble  declares,  " there  have  been  many,  of  late,  in  CHAPTER 
diverse  parts  of  this  country."     All  officers,  civil  and     XV' 
military,  were  to  exert  themselves  in  this  behalf  to  the  1676. 
utmost;  and   any  persons   refusing  to  aid  them  when 
called  upon  were  to  be  "judged  and  punished  as  mu- 
tinous and  rebellious."     The  governor,  in  case  of  "  ill- 
disposed  and  disaffected  people"  gathered  together,  as  of 
late,   "by  beat  of  drum,"   "in  a  most  apparent  rebel- 
lious manner,"  should  the  like  disorders  occur  again,  was 
to  raise  at  once  sufficient  force,  at  the  public  charge, 
"  to  suppress  the  same,  and  inflict  condign  punishment 
on  the  offenders." 

Bidding  them  beware  of  "  two  rogues"  among  them — 
mentioning  Lawrence  and  Drummond  by  name — the 
governor  directed  the  burgesses  to  consider  the  subject 
of  the  Indian  war.  "  Some  gentlemen,"  we  are  told, 
"  took  this  opportunity  to  endeavor  the  redressing  several 
grievances."  A  committee  was  named  for  that  purpose ; 
but  this  proceeding  was  interrupted  by  pressing  messages 
from  the  governor,  "  to  meddle  with  nothing  till  the  In- 
dian business  was  dispatched." 

Though  all  Bacon's  company  had  been  pardoned,  and 
himself  restored  to  his  seat  in  the  council,  he  soon 
secretly  left  Jamestown.  A  few  days  after,  he  reap- 
peared at  the  head  of  three  or  four  hundred  armed  men 
from  the  upper  counties.  Anticipating  the  York  train- 
bands, for  which  the  governor  had  sent,  Bacon's  men  oc- 
cupied all  the  avenues,  disarmed  the  town's  people,  "sur- 
round the  state  house  (sitting  the  Assembly),  rage  there- 
at, storm  for  a  commission  for  Bacon,  which,  upon  the 
earnest  importunity  of  the  council  and  Assembly,  was 
at  length  obtained,  as  also  an  act  of  indemnity  to  Bacon 
and  his  men  for  this  force,  and  a  high  applausive  letter 
to  the  king  in  favor  of  Bacon's  designs  and  proceedings, 


536  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  signed  by  the  governor,  council,  and  Assembly."  So 
xv'  Says  the  report  of  the  royal  commissioners  appointed  to 
1676.  investigate  the  origin  and  causes  of  Bacon's  insurrection, 
and  this  account  agrees  sufficiently  well  with  that  given 
by  one  T.  M.,  who  sat  in  the  Assembly  as  a  burgess  for 
Stafford  county,  and  who  has  left  us  a  graphic  history 
of  the  session.  A  planter  and  merchant  of  the  northern 
neck,  his  hands  full  of  his  own  business,  and  without  "  any 
inclination  to  tamper  in  the  precarious  intrigues  of  gov- 
ernment," T.  M.  had  been  overpersuaded  by  his  friends 
to  stand  as  a  candidate  for  the  Assembly ;  to  which  he 
consented  the  more  readily,  as  he  had  suffered  severely 
both  in  his  plantations  and  his  merchandise  from  the 
late  Indian  disturbances,  and  was,  therefore,  very  anx- 
ious to  have  them  brought  to  an  end.  But  his  experi- 
ence on  this  occasion  of  "  pernicious  entanglements  in 
the  labyrinths  and  snares  of  state  ambiguities"  made 
him  resolve  that,  as  this  was  his  first,  so  it  should  be 
his  last  going  astray  from  "  his  wonted  sphere  of  mer- 
chandise and  other  private  concernments  into  the  dark 
and  slippery  meanders  of  court  embarrassments." 

"  Upon  news,"  says  T.  M.,  "  that  Mr.  Bacon  was 
thirty  miles  up  the  river,  at  the  head  of  four  hundred 
men,  the  governor  sent  to  the  posts  adjacent  on  both 
sides  James  River  for  the  militia  and  all  that  could  be 
gotten  to  come  and  defend  the  town.  Expresses  came 
almost  hourly  of  the  army's  approaches,  who,  in  less 
than  four  days  after  the  first  accounts  of  them,  at  two  of 
the  clock,  entered  the  town  without  being  withstood, 
and  formed  in  a  body,  horse  and  foot,  upon  a  green,  not 
a  flight-shot  from  the  end  of  the  state  house,  as  orderly 
as  regular  veteran  troops."  « In  half  an  hour  after,  the 
drum  beat  for  the  House  to  meet ;  and  in  less  than  an 
hour  more,  Mr.  Bacon  came,  with  a  file  of  fusileers  on 


VIRGINIA  UNDER  CHARLES  II. 


537 


either  hand,  near  the  corner  of  the  state  house,  where  CHAPTER 
the  governor  and  council  went  forth  to  meet  him.  We  XV' 
saw,  from  the  window,  the  governor  open  his  breast,  and  1676. 
Bacon  strutting  betwixt  his  two  files  of  men  with  his 
left  arm  akimbo,  flinging  his  right  arm  every  way,  both 
like  men  distracted ;  and  if,  in  this  moment  of  fury, 
that  enraged  multitude  had  fallen  upon  the  governor  and 
council,  we  of  the  Assembly  expected  the  same  immedi- 
ate fate.  In  two  minutes  the  governor  walked  toward 
his  private  apartment  at  the  other  end  of  the  state  house, 
the  gentlemen  of  the  council  following  him,  and  after 
them  Mr.  Bacon,  with  outrageous  postures  of  his  head, 
arms,  body,  and  legs,  often  tossing  his  hand  from  his 
sword  to  his  hat,  and  after  him  a  detachment  of  fusil- 
eers  (muskets  not  being  there  in  use),  who,  with  their 
locks  bent,  presented  their  fusils  at  a  window  of  the  As- 
sembly chamber  filled  with  faces,  repeating,  with  men- 
acing voices, «  We'll  have  it !'  <  We'll  have  it !'  Where- 
upon one  of  our  House,  a  person  known  to  many  of 
them,  shook  his  handkercher  out  at  the  window,  saying, 
1  You  shall  have  it !'  <  You  shall  have  it ."  At  which 
words  they  sat  down  their  fusils,  unbent  their  locks,  and 
stood  still,  till  Bacon  coming  back,  they  followed  him  to 
their  main  body.  In  this  hubbub,  a  servant  of  mine  got 
so  nigh  as  to  hear  the  governor's  words,  and  also  followed 
Mr.  Bacon  and  heard  what  he  said,  who  told  me,  that 
when  the  governor  opened  his  breast,  he  said,  <  Here, 
shoot  me  !  'Fore  God  !  fair  mark  !  Shoot !'  often  re- 
hearsing the  same,  without  any  other  words.  Whereto 
Mr.  Bacon  answered,  '  No,  may  it  please  your  honor, 
we'll  not  hurt  *  a  hair  of  your  head,  nor  of  any  other 
man's.  We  are  come  for  a  commission  to  save  our  lives 
from  the  Indians,  which  you  have  so  often  promised,  and 
now  we'll  have  it  before  we  go !' 


538      HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER       "  In  an  hour  or  more  after  these  violent  concussions, 

XV 

'  Mr.  Bacon  came  up  to  our  chamber  and  desired  a  com- 
1676.  mission  from  us  to  go  against  the  Indians.  Our  speaker 
sat  silent,  when  one  Mr.  Blayton,  a  neighbor  to  Mr. 
Bacon,  and  elected  with  him  a  member  of  Assembly  for 
the  same  county,  who  therefore  durst  speak  to  him,  made 
answer,  it  was  not  in  our  province  or  power,  nor  of  any 
other  save  the  king's  vicegerent,  our  governor.  Bacon 
pressed  hard  nigh  half  an  hour's  harangue  on  the  pre- 
serving of  our  lives  from  the  Indians,  inspecting  the  pub- 
lic revenues,  the  exorbitant  taxes,  the  grievances  and 
calamities  of  that  deplorable  country.  Whereto  having 
no  other  answer,  he  went  away  dissatisfied. 

"  Next  day  there  was  a  rumor  the  governor  and  coun- 
cil had  agreed  Mr.  Bacon  should  have  a  commission  to 
go  general  of  the  forces  we  were  then  raising.  Where- 
upon I,  being  a  member  for  Stafford,  the  most  northern 
frontier,  and  where  the  war  began,  considering  that  Mr. 
Bacon,  dwelling  in  the  most  southern  frontier  county, 
might  the  less  regard  the  parts  I  represented,  I  went  to 
Colonel  Cole,  an  active  member  of  the  council,  desiring 
his  advice,  if  application  to  Mr.  Bacon  on  that  subject 
was  then  seasonable  and  safe.  Which  he  approving  and 
earnestly  advising,  I  went  to  Mr.  Lawrence,  esteemed 
Mr.  Bacon's  principal  consultant.  He  took  me  to  Mr. 
Bacon,  and  there  left  me,  where  I  was  entertained  two 
or  three  hours  with  the  particular  relation  of  divers  be- 
fore cited  transactions,"  including  Bacon's  expedition 
against  the  Indians.  "  As  to  the  matter  I  spoke  of,  he 
told  me  that  the  governor  had  indeed  promised  him 
the  command  of  the  forces ;  and  if  his  honor  should  keep 
his  word,  which  he  doubted,  he  assured  me  the  like  care 
should  be  taken  of  the  remotest  corners  of  the  land  as  of 
his  own  dwelling-house,  and  prayed  me  to  advise  him 


VIRGINIA  UNDER  CHARLES  II.  539 

what  persons  in  those  parts  were  most  fit  to  bear  com-  CHAPTER 
mands.  I  frankly  gave  him  my  opinion  that  the  most 
satisfactory  gentlemen  to  governor  and  people  would  be  1676. 
commanders  of  the  militia.  Wherewith  he  was  well 
pleased,  and  himself  wrote  a  list  of  those  nominated. 
That  evening  I  made  known  what  had  passed  with  Mr. 
Bacon  to  my  colleague,  Colonel  Mason,  whose  bottle  at- 
tendance doubled  my  task.  The  matter  he  liked  well, 
but  questioned  the  governor's  approbation  of  it.  I  con- 
fessed the  case  required  sedate  thoughts,  but  reasoned 
that  he  and  such  like  gentlemen  must  either  command 
or  be  commanded ;  and  if,  on  their  denials,  Mr.  Bacon 
should  take  distaste,  and  be  constrained  to  appoint  com- 
manders out  of  the  rabble,  the  governor  himself,  with 
the  persons  and  estates  of  all  in  the  land,  would  be  at 
their  dispose,  whereby  their  own  ruin  might  be  owing 
to  themselves.  In  this  he  agreed  ;  and  said,  if  the  gov- 
ernor would  give  his  own  commission,  he  would  be  con- 
tent to  serve  under  General  Bacon,  as  now  he  began  to 
be  entitled ;  but  first  would  consult  other  gentlemen  in 
the  same  circumstances.  They  all  concurred  it  was  the 
most  safe  barrier  against  pernicious  designs,  if  such 
should  be.  With  this  I  acquainted  Mr.  Lawrence,  who 
went  rejoicing  to  Mr.  Bacon  with  the  good  tidings  that 
the  militia  officers  were  inclined  to  serve  under  him  as 
their  general,  in  case  the  governor  would  please  to  give 
them  his  own  commissions." 

The  Assembly,  resuming  the  subject  of  the  Indian 
war,  passed  an  act  appointing  Bacon  general  of  a  thou- 
sand men,  one  eighth  part  horsemen  or  dragoons,  destined 
for  active  operations.  These  forces,  apportioned  among 
the  several  counties,  were  to  be  composed  of  volunteers, 
if  such  offered  and  the  general  chose  to  accept  them,  or 
otherwise  to  be  raised  by  impressment.  The  number 


540  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  was  to  be  increased  if  necessary,  and  the  tropps  were 
to  be  divided  into  a  northern  and  southern  army  by  the 
1676.  line  of  York  River.  The  superior  officers  were  to  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  governor  ;  but  Bacon  took  care  to  supply 
himself  with  a  stock  of  blank  commissions,  signed  with 
the  governor's  name.  The  company  officers  were  to  be 
nominated  by  the  soldiers,  but  their  selection  was  limited 
to  the  militia  officers  of  their  respective  counties.  The 
counties  were  to  supply  their  respective  quotas,  with 
draft  cattle,  arms,  ammunition,  and  provisions,  "at 
least  one  pound  of  biscuit-bread  and  one  half  pound  of 
good  dried  beef,  bacon,  or  cheese  for  a  day,"  and  were  to 
pay  them  wages  at  the  rates  already  established  for  the 
troops  in  garrison  at  the  heads  of  the  rivers.  A  part  of 
those  garrisons  were  still  retained ;  the  rest  were  dis- 
pensed with,  and  the  men  taken  into  the  line  of  the  new 
army.  Servants  might  enlist  as  substitutes,  "  providing 
the  master  be  consenting  and  the  servant  willing,"  the 
master  to  have  the  pay  and  the  servant  the  plunder.  All 
Indians  were  to  be  esteemed  enemies  "  who  have  or  shall 
forsake  their  usual  and  accustomed  dwelling  towns,"  or 
who  "  receive  or  entertain  in  their  towns,  cabins,  or  forts 
any  Indians  our  present  enemies,  or  who  shall  hereafter 
become  our  enemies,  or  any  strange  Indians  who  do  not 
properly  belong  to  their  towns."  Those  who  desire  to 
remain  at  peace  are  "  to  deliver  up,  kill,  or  destroy"  all 
such  strange  Indians  ;  or,  if  not  strong  enough  for  that, 
to  give  notice  of  their  coming  to  the  nearest  militia  offi- 
cer or  justice  of  the  peace. 

All  Indians  taken  in  war  are  to  be  held  and  account- 
ed slaves  during  life.  This,  the  first  legislative  attempt 
to  reduce  the  native  Indians  of  Virginia  to  slavery,  may 
help,  perhaps,  to  explain  the  eagerness  of  the  colonists  for 
offensive  warfare. 


VIRGINIA  UNDER  CHARLES  II.  54^ 

Deserted  Indian  lands  were  not  to  be  granted  out  to  CHAPTER 

xv 
particular  persons,  but  were  vested  in  the  several  coun-          ' 

ties,  to  be  by  them  applied  toward  defraying  the  charge  1676. 
of  the  war. 

That  "  all  color  and  pretense  for  reviving  the  late  mis- 
chievous Indian  trade  might  be  taken  away,"  all  com- 
missions for  Indian  traffic,  even  those  under  the  act  of 
the  last  session,  were  annulled.  But  it  still  remained 
lawful  to  employ  the  Indians  in  fishing,  and  to  deal  with 
them  in  fish,  canoes,  bowls,  mats,  or  baskets,  making  pay- 
ment in  corn  only ;  nor  were  friendly  Indians  to  be  de- 
barred fishing  and  hunting  "  within  their  own  limits  and 
bounds,  using  bows  and  arrows  only." 

The  member  for  Stafford,  who  sat  on  the  committee 
by  which  these  Indian  bills  were  matured,  has  left  us  a 
graphic  account  of  an  interview  between  that  commit- 
tee and  an  Indian  chieftainess.  "  Our  committee  being 
sat,  the  Queen  of  Pamunkey,  descended  from  Opechan- 
canough,  a  former  emperor  of  Virginia,  was  introduced, 
who  entered  the  chamber  with  a  comportment  graceful 
to  admiration,  bringing  on  her  right  hand  an  English 
interpreter,  and  on  her  left  her  son,  a  stripling  twenty 
years  of  age.  She  had  round  her  head  a  plat  of  black 
and  white  wampum,  three  inches  broad,  in  imitation 
of  a  crown,  and  was  clothed  in  a  mantle  of  dressed 
deer-skins,  with  the  hair  outward,  and  the  edge  cut 
round  six  inches  deep,  which  made  strings  resembling 
twisted  fringe  from  the  shoulders  to  the  feet.  With 
grave,  court-like  gestures,  and  a  majestic  air  in  her  face, 
she  walked  up  our  long  room  to  the  lower  end  of  the  ta- 
ble, where,  after  a  few  entreaties,  she  sat  down,  the  in- 
terpreter and  her  son  standing  by  her  on  either  side. 
Our  chairman  asked  her  what  men  she  would  lend  us 
for  guides  in  the  wilderness,  and  to  assist  us  against  our 


542  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  enemy  Indians  ?     She  spake  to  the  interpreter  to  inform 
_  her  what  the  chairman  said,  though  we  believed  she  un- 

1676.  derstood  him,  and  then  bade  the  interpreter  ask  her  son,  to 
whom  the  English  tongue  was  familiar,  and  who  was  re- 
puted the  son  of  an  English  colonel.  Yet  neither  would 
he  speak  to,  nor  seem  to  understand,  the  chairman,  but, 
as  the  interpreter  told  us,  referred  all  to  his  mother. 
Being  again  urged,  after  a  little  musing,  with  an  earn- 
est, passionate  countenance,  as  if  tears  were  ready  to 
gush  out,  and  a  fervent  sort  of  expression,  she  made  an 
harangue  of  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  often  interlac- 
ing, with  a  high,  shrill  voice  and  vehement  passion,  these 
words  :  l  Talapotamoi  dead  !'  Colonel  Hill,  being  next 
me,  shook  his  head.  I  asked  him  what  was  the  matter. 
He  told  me  all  she  said  was  too  true,  to  our  shame.  That 
his  father  was  general  in  that  battle  where,  diverse  years 
before,  Talapotamoi,  her  husband,  had  led  a  hundred  of 
his  Indians  in  help  to  the  English  against  our  former 
enemy  Indians,  and  was  there  slain  with  most  of  his 
men,  for  which  no  compensation  at  all  had  been  to  that 
day  rendered  to  her,  wherewith  she  now  upbraided  us." 
"  Her  discourse  ending,  and  our  morose  chairman  not 
advancing  one  cold  word  toward  assuaging  the  anger  and 
grief  her  speech  and  demeanor  manifested,  nor  taking 
any  notice  of  all  she  had  said,  neither  considering  that 
we  then  were,  in  our  great  exigency,  suppliants  to  her 
for  a  favor  of  the  same  kind  as  the  former,  for  which  we 
did  not  deny  the  having  been  so  ingrate,  he  rudely  push- 
ed again  the  same  question — What  Indians  will  you  now 
contribute  ?  Of  this  disregard  she  signified  her  resent- 
0  ment  by  a  disdainful  aspect,  and,  turning  her  head  half 
aside,  sat  mute,  till  the  same  question  being  pressed  a 
third  time,  without  returning  her  face  to  the  board,  she 
answered,  with  a  low,  slighting  voice,  in  her  own  Ian- 


VIRGINIA  UNDER   CHARLES   II.  543 

guage,    <  Six !'      Being   further    importuned,    sitting   a  CHAPTER 
little  while   sullen  without  a  word  between,  she   said  ______ 

<  Twelve !'  though   she   then   had  a  hundred   and  fifty  1676. 
Indian  men  in  her  town.     And  so  she .  rose  and  walked 
gravely  away,  as  not  pleased  with  her  treatment." 

The  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  Indian  war  provided 
for,  the  Assembly  turned  its  attention  to  internal  re- 
forms. Fees  and  public  offices  were  regulated,  and  pro- 
vision made  against  abuses  of  official  authority.  The 
right  of  voting  for  burgesses,  and  the  election  of  the 
parish  vestries,  were  restored  to  the  freemen.  The  ex- 
emption from  taxes  hitherto  enjoyed  by  the  families  of 
ministers  and  counselors  was  taken  away.  In  making 
the  county  levy,  the  commissioners  were  to  be  joined  by 
delegates  from  the  parishes.  All  "  ordinaries,  ale-houses, 
and  tippling-houses"  were  suppressed,  except  "  in  James- 
town, and  at  each  side  of  York  River  at  the  two  great 
ferries."  The  ordinaries  at  these  latter  places  might 
"  sell  and  utter  man's  meat,  horse  meat,  beer  and  cider, 
but  no  other  strong  drink  whatsoever  ;"  and  any  person, 
"  except  as  aforesaid,  presuming  to  sell  any  sort  of  drink 
or  liquor  by  retail,  under  any  color,  pretense,  delusion, 
or  subtle  evasion  whatsoever,  to  be  drunk  or  spent  in  his 
or  their  house  or  houses,  or  upon  his  or  their  plantation 
or  plantations,"  was  liable  to  a  fine  of  one  hundred 
pounds  of  tobacco,  payable  to  the  informer.  Edward 
Hill  and  John  Stith,  "  great  instruments  in  stirring  up 
the  late  differences,"  by  reason  of  "  the  illegal  and  un- 
just burdensome  taxes,"  by  the  "art,  skill,  and  cunning" 
of  the  said  Hill  and  Stith,  and  for  "  their  private  ends 
and  gain,"  imposed  upon  the  inhabitants  of  Charles  City 
county,  were  specially  disqualified  to  hold  any  office  in 
any  parish  of  that  county.  The  legislation  of  this  re- 
markable Assembly,  known  collectively  as  Bacon's  laws, 


544  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  concludes  with  an  act  of  general  and  total  pardon  and  ob- 

XV 

livion  of  all  treasons,  felonies,  contempts,  crimes,  and 
1676.  misdemeanors  done  or  counseled  since  the  first  day  of 
March  last  past,  to  the  four  and  twentieth  day  of  June, 
except  breaches  of  the  act  against  trade  with  the  Indians. 
The  Assembly  adjourned,  the  general  appointed  by  it 
undertook  an  expedition  against  the  Pamunkeys,  whom, 
according  to  the  governor's  partisans,  he  frightened  from 
their  lands,  and  made  hostile,  if  they  were  so.  While 
Bacon  was  thus  employed,  Berkeley  was  encouraged  by 
a  loyal  petition  from  Gloucester  county,  got  up  by  Philip 
Ludwell,  one  of  the  council,  to  proceed  thither,  and  to 
July  29.  issue  a  new  proclamation,  again  denouncing  Bacon  as  a 
rebel.  But  the  projects  of  the  governor  were  counter- 
worked by  the  activity  of  Drummond  and  Lawrence. 
Bacon,  in  reply,  put  forth  a  declaration,  in  which  he  ar- 
raigned the  governor,  justified  himself,  and  called  a  con- 
Aug.  3.  vention  of  delegates  from  the  several  counties  to  meet  at 
Middle  Plantation  (now  Williamsburg).  This  conven- 
tion, attended  by  many  of  the  principal  men  of  the  col- 
ony, agreed  upon  an  oath  to  be  imposed  on  the  inhabit- 
ants, and  an  "engagement"  to  be  signed  by  them,  promis- 
ing to  support  Bacon  even  against  troops  from  England 
till  the  matters  in  dispute  could  be  referred  to  the  king. 
As  even  the  loyal  inhabitants  of  Gloucester  seemed 
cold  to  his  cause,  Berkeley  presently  retired  to  Accomac, 
on  the  eastern  shore,  accompanied  by  Beverley,  Ludwell, 
and  a  few  others.  This  withdrawal  was  treated  as  an 
abdication  of  office,  and  Bacon,  with  four  members  of 
the  council,  issued  writs  for  electing  a  new  Assembly. 

Bacon's  party  had  been  joined  by  Giles  Bland,  the 
collector  of  the  customs,  "  a  gentleman  newly  arrived 
from  England  to  possess. the  estate  of  his  deceased  uncle, 
late  of  the  council."  Bland  seized  the  ship  of  one  Lori- 


VIRGINIA  tfNDER  CHARLES  II.  545 

more,  increased  her  armament  to  sixteen  guns,  and  sail-  CHAPTER 

ed  with  a  force  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  to  attack 1_ 

Berkeley,  in  company  with  Captain  Barlow,  "  one  of  1676. 
Cromwell's  soldiers,"  and  Carver,  "  a  good  seaman,  and 
a  stout,  resolute  fellow,"  who  commanded  a  bark  of  four 
guns.  But  by  the  contrivance  of  Lorimore,  supported  by 
the  courage  of  Ludwell,  the  large  ship  was  betrayed  into 
the  governor's  hands.  The  other  vessel  was  also  taken. 
Bland  was  put  in  irons  ;  Carver  and  Barlow  were  hang- 
ed— a  rash  act,  it  was  thought,  since  Bacon  had  Sir 
Henry  Chicheley  and  other  counselors  in  his  power,  and 
might,  perhaps,  retaliate.  Most  of  the  men,  on  the  offer 
of  pardon,  were  induced  to  enter  the  governor's  service. 

By  liberal  promises  of  pay  and  free  plunder,  Berkeley 
collected  a  force  of  near  a  thousand  Accomacians.  With 
two  ships  and  some  sixteen  sloops,  he  presently  entered 
James  River,  and  proceeded  to  occupy  Jamestown.  Sept.  7. 

Bacon's  men  were  already  dispersed,  but  he  soon  col- 
lected a  new  force,  and,  though  far  inferior  in  numbers 
to  the  governor,  laid  close  siege  to  Jamestown.  The 
peninsula  or  island,  for  so  it  was  called,  on  which  that 
ancient  town  was  situated,  two  miles  in  length,  and 
about  a  mile  in  breadth,  washed  on  the  south  by  the 
James  River,  was  encompassed  on  the  north  by  a  deep 
creek,  which  united  with  the  river  on  the  east,  and  ranged 
westward,  in  a  semicircle,  till  within  a  few  paces  of  the 
river  bank.  This  peninsula,  as  described  by  one  of  the 
original  historians  of  this  insurrection,  "  is  low  ground, 
full  of  marshes  and  swamps,  which  make  the  air,  es- 
pecially in  the  summer,  insalubrious,  not  at  all  re- 
plenished with  springs  of  fresh  water,  and  that  which 
they  have  in  their  wells  brackish,  ill  scented,  penurious, 
and  not  grateful  to  the  stomach,  which  renders  the  place 
improper  to  endure  the  commencement  of  a  siege." 
I.  MM 


.546  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER       While  completing  his  intrenchment  across  the  neck 

"VV 

of  the  peninsula,  Bacon  resorted  to  a  curious  sort  of 
1 676.  stratagem  to  cover  his  unfinished  works  from  attack. 
«  He  was  no  sooner  arrived  at  town,"  so  writes  Mrs. 
Anne  Cotton  to  her  friends  at  Yardley,  in  Northamp- 
tonshire, "  but  by  several  small  parties  of  horse,  two  or 
three  in  a  party,  for  more  he  could  not  spare,  he  fetch- 
eth  into  his  little  leagure  all  the  prime  men's  wives  whose 
husbands  were  with  the  governor,  as  Colonel  Bacon's 
lady,  Madam  Bray,  Madam  Page,  Madam  Ballard,  and 
others,  which  the  next  morning  he  presents  to  the  view 
of  their  husbands  and  friends  in  town  upon  the  top  of 
the  small  work  he  had  cast  up  in  the  night,  where  he 
caused  them  to  tarry  till  he  had  finished  his  defense 
against  his  enemies'  shot,  it  being  the  only  place,  as 
you  do  know  well  enough,  for  those  in  town  to  make  a 
sally  at." 

The  works  being  finished,  and  the  ladies  removed, 
the  besieged  made  a  sally,  but  were  repulsed  with  loss. 
Finding  himself  in  an  awkward  predicament,  and  his 
troops  not  to  be  depended  upon,  the  governor  made  a 
hasty  retreat  by  night,  taking  with  him  the  town's  peo- 
ple and  their  goods,  "  leaving  all  the  great  guns  nailed 
up,  and  the  houses  empty,  for  Bacon  to  enter  at  his 
pleasure,  which  he  did  the  next  morning  before  day, 
where,  contrary  to  his  hopes,  he  met  with  nothing  that 
might  satisfy  either  himself  or  his  soldiers,  except  a  few 
horses,  two  or  three  cellars  of  wine,  and  some  small  quan- 
tity of  Indian  corn,  with  a  great  many  tanned  hides." 

The  governor  anchored  some  twenty  miles  below  the 
town.  To  prevent  his  return,  Bacon's  party  set  it  on 
fire,  not  sparing  even  the  church,  "  the  first  that  ever 
was  in  Virginia."  It  consisted,  besides  the  church  and 
state  house,  of  some  sixteen  or  eighteen  houses,  "  most, 


VIRGINIA   UNDER   CHARLES   II. 


547 


as  the   church,  built   of  brick,   fair   and  large,   and  in  CHAPTER 
them  about  a  dozen  families,  for  all  were  not  inhabit-      XV' 
ed,  getting  their  livings  by  keeping  ordinaries  at  most  1676. 
extraordinary  rates."      The  legislative  attempts  to  build 
up  Jamestown  seem  not  to  have  been  attended  with 
much  success.     Drummond  and  Lawrence  were  accused 
of  having  counseled  this  conflagration,  and  of  giving  the 
example  by  each  setting  fire  to  his  own  house,  the  best 
in  the  town  next  to  the  governor's. 

Jamestown  burned,  Bacon  marched  to  meet  Colonel 
Brent,  who  was  advancing  fast  upon  him  from  Potomac, 
at  the  head  of  twelve  hundred  men,  to  raise  the  siege  of 
Jamestown.  Brent  was  presently  deserted  by  his  sol- 
diers, and  Berkeley  having  again  retired  to  Accomac, 
Bacon  marched  to  Green  Spring,  the  governor's  estate, 
where  he  "  feasted  his  men  at  the  governor's  cost ;"  after 
which  he  crossed  York  River  into  Gloucester,  and  suc- 
ceeded, though  not  without  a  good  deal  of  difficulty,  in 
inducing  the  inhabitants  of  that  county  to  take  the  en- 
gagement. 

The  whole  western  shore  thus  subjected  to  his  au- 
thority, just  as  Bacon  was  purposing  to  cross  over  to 
Accomac,  he  was  seized  with  a  violent  disorder,  con- 
tracted among  the  marshes  of  Jamestown,  by  which  he 
was  soon  carried  off.  He  had  taken  the  most  prominent  Oct. 
part  in  the  late  commotions,  known,  from  him,  as  BACON'S 
REBELLION,  but,  as  often  happens  in  such  cases,  others 
less  forward  had  exerted  perhaps  a  greater  influence. 
The  governor  considered  Drummond  and  Lawrence  as 
the  prime  movers,  and,  as  such,  had  specially  excepted 
them  from  all  offers  of  pardon.  Drummond  was  a  "  so- 
ber Scotch  gentleman  of  good  repute."  He  had  formerly 
been  appointed  by  Berkeley  governor  of  the  infant  set- 
tlements of  North  Carolina,  but  was  at  this  time,  prob- 


54&  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  ably  from  a  long  course  of  opposition,  an  object  of  great 
.'  ..  rancor  on  the  part  of  the  governor,  who  stigmatized  him, 
1676.  indeed,  as  "  the  original  cause  of  the  whole  rebellion." 
Lawrence  was  "  formerly  of  Oxford  University,  and  for 
wit,  learning,  and  sobriety,  equaled  there  by  few." 
Some  years  before,  "  he  had  been  partially  treated  at 
law"  by  the  governor  and  council  "  on  behalf  of  a  cor- 
rupt favorite."  "  I  myself  have  heard  him,"  says  our 
historical  burgess  from  Stafford  county,  "in  his  familiar 
discourse,  insinuate  as  if  his  fancy  gave  him  prospect  of 
finding,  at  one  time  or  other,  some  expedient  not  only  to 
repair  his  great  loss,  but  therewith  to  see  those  abuses 
rectified  that  the  country  was  oppressed  with,  through, 
as  he  said,  the  frowardness,  avarice,  and  French  despotic 
methods  of  the  governor.  And  likewise  I  knew  him  to 
be  a  thinking  man,  and,  though  nicely  honest,  affable, 
and  without  blemish  in  his  conversation  and  dealings, 
yet  did  he  manifest  abundance  of  uneasiness  in  the  sense 
of  his  hard  usages,  which  might  prompt  him  to  improve 
that  Indian  quarrel  to  the  service  of  his  animosities. 
And  for  this  the  more  fair  and  frequent  opportunities 
offered  by  his  dwelling  at  Jamestown,  where  was  the 
concourse  from  all  parts  to  the  governor  ;  and  besides 
that,  he  had  married  a  wealthy  widow,  who  kept  a  large 
house  of  public  entertainment,  unto  which  resorted  those 
of  the  best  quality,  and  such  others  as  business  called  to 
that  town ;  and  his  parts,  with  his  even  temper,  made 
his  converse  courted  by  persons  of  all  ranks ;  so  that,  be- 
ing subtile,  and  having  all  these  advantages,  he  might 
with  less  difficulty  discover  men's  inclinations,  and  in- 
still his  notions  where  he  found  they  would  be  imbibed 
with  greatest  satisfaction."  "  As  for  Mr.  Bacon,  fame 
did  lay  to  his  charge  the  having  run  out  his  patrimony 
in  England,  except  what  he  brought  to  Virginia,  and  of 


VIRGINIA  UNDER  CHARLES  II.  549 

that  the  most  part  to  be  exhausted,  which  together  made  CHAPTEK 
him  suspected  of  casting  an  eye  to  search  for  retrieve-    .  XV' 
ments  in  the  troubled  waters  of  popular   discontents,  1676. 
wanting  patience  to  wait  the  death  of  his  opulent  cousin, 
old  Colonel  Bacon,  whose  estate  he  expected  to  inherit. 
But  he  was  too  young,  too  much  a  stranger  here,  and 
of  a  disposition  too  precipitate  to  manage  things  to  that 
length  they  were  carried,  had  not  thoughtful  Mr.  Law- 
rence been  at  the  bottom." 

With  Bacon's  life  expired  his  commission,  granted  by 
the  Assembly;  also  the  engagement,  which  ran  to  him 
personally.  The  insurgents,  however,  still  stood  on  their 
defense,  the  chief  military  command  devolving  on  Ingram, 
recently  come  into  the  country,  where  he  had  possessed 
himself  "  of  a  fine,  though  short-lived  estate,  by  marrying 
with  a  rich  widow,  valued  at  some  hundreds  of  pounds." 

Not  long  after  Bacon's  death,  Beverley,  having  sailed 
from  Accomac  in  a  sloop,  entered  York  River,  "  snapped 
up"  one  Colonel  Hansford  and  his  party,  and  carried 
them  prisoners  to  Accomac.  This  Hansford  "  had  the 
honor,"  according  to  one  of  our  authorities,  "  the  ill 
luck,"  according  to  T.  M.,  "  to  be  the  first  Virginian 
that  ever  was  hanged."  "  It  is  said,"  this  latter  au- 
thority reports,  "  that  Hansford,  at  or  a  little  before  the 
onslaught,  had  forsaken  the  capital  of  Mars  to  pay  his 
oblations  in  the  temple  of  Venus ;  but  this  I  have  only 
on  report,  and  must  not  aver  it  upon  my  historical  rep- 
utation." This  anonymous  writer  is  evidently  some- 
what given  to  scandal,  since  he  charges  upon  "  thought- 
ful Mr.  Lawrence"  that  he  "  eclipsed  his  more  than 
ordinary  learning  and  parts  as  well  in  the  transactions 
of  the  present  affairs  as  in  the  dark  embraces  of  a  black- 
amoor, his  slave,  and  that  in  so  fond  a  manner  as  though 
Venus  was  chiefly  to  be  worshiped  in  the  image  of  a 


550  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  negro,  to  the  no  mean  scandal  and  affront  of  all  the  vo- 

.  taresses  in  and  about  town." 

1677.  In  a  second  expedition,  not  long  after,  Beverley  suc- 
Nov-  ceeded  in  surprising  and  capturing  Wilford  and  Chease- 
man,  two  other  of  the  rebel  leaders.  Wilford  was  an  In- 
dian interpreter,  "  second  son  of  a  knight  who  had  lost 
his  life  and  estate  in  the  late  king's  quarrel,"  one  of 
those  who  went  out  with  Bacon  in  the  first  Indian  ex- 
pedition, and  charged  by  Berkeley  with  having  frighted 
the  Queen  of  Pamunkey  from  the  lands  granted  to  her 
by  the  Assembly.  Wilford  was  hanged.  Cheaseman's 
wife  begged  his  life  on  her  knees,  "desiring  that  since 
what  her  husband  had  done  was  by  her  means,  and  so,  by 
consequence,  she  most  guilty,  she  might  be  hanged  and 
he  pardoned !"  The  angry  governor  overwhelmed  this 
devoted  woman  with  vulgar  abuse.  Her  husband  died 
in  prison,  before  trial,  of  grief,  fear,  or  bad  usage,  all  of 
which  were  alleged. 

Encouraged  by  these  successes,  and  joined  by  two  or 
three  English  ships  lately  arrived  in  the  bay,  Berkeley 
sailed  for  York  River  with  all  his  forces.  Beverley,  a 
third  time  successful,  surprised  Harris,  quartered  in  Glou- 
cester county  with  a  party  of  insurgents.  The  men  of 
Gloucester  and  Middlesex  were  thus  encouraged  to  rise  in 
the  governor's  favor.  The  principal  body  of  insurgents, 
commanded  by  Ingram  in  person,  with  one  Walklett  as 
his  lieutenant,  was  posted  at  West  Point,  a  strong  posi- 
tion at  the  forks  of  Pamunkey  and  Matapony,  where  they 
unite  to  form  York  River.  Walklett  presently  marched 
with  a  detachment  to  suppress  the  rising  in  Middlesex. 
A  part  of  the  Gloucester  men  hastened  to  cut  him  off. 
But,  in  the  mean  time,  those  who  remained  behind, 
suddenly  attacked  by  Ingram,  were  obliged  to  surren- 
der. The  others,  returning  unsuccessful  from  their 


VIRGINIA  UNDER   CHARLES  II. 


551 


march  against  Walklett,  also  surrendered,  and  Glou-  CHAPTER 

"VV 

cester  passed  again  under  the  power  of  the  insurgents. 
Green  Spring,  in  James  City  county,  on  the  other  side  1676. 
of  the  York,  the  governor's  estate,  was  held  by  a  strong 
insurgent  party,  who  had  barricadoed  all  the  approaches, 
and  planted  cannon  to  defend  them.  An  attack  on  this 
post  by  a  part  of  the  governor's  forces  was  repulsed  with 
the  loss  of  the  leader. 

Unsuccessful  in  arms,  Berkeley  had  recourse  to  nego- 
tiation. He  wrote  several  "  complimental  letters"  to 
Walklett,  and  by  the  "  well  contrivance"  of  Captain 
Grantham,  in  whose  ship  Ingram  had  formerly  come 
passenger  to  Virginia,  the  two  leaders,  on  promise  of  par- 
don, were  induced  to  betray  their  forces  into  the  govern- 
or's hands.  About  the  same  time,  Graines,  "  the  chiefest 
rebel  on  the  south  side  of  James  River,  was  shot  dead 
by  Captain  Couset,  and  all  his  guards,  with  drums,  fol-  1677. 
lowers,  and  ammunition,  taken."  The  greater  part  of  January- 
James  River  declared  for  the  governor.  Drew,  "  for- 
merly a  miller,"  but  placed  in  command  of  Green 
Spring  by  Bacon,  surrendered  on  terms.  Drurnmond, 
taken,  half  famished,  in  Chickahominy  Swamp,  was 
stripped,  put  in  irons,  and  brought  before  the  governor, 
tried  the  next  day  by  court  martial,  and,  though  he  had 
never  held  any  military  command,  found  guilty  in  half 
an  hour,  and  hanged  within  four  hours  after.  "  The 
last  that  was  heard  of  Lawrence  was  from  an  uppermost 
plantation,  whence  he  and  four  others,  desperadoes,  with 
horses,  pistols,  &c.,  marched  away  in  a  snow  ankle  deep, 
who  were  thought  to  have  cast  themselves  into  a  branch 
of  some  river  rather  than  be  treated  like  Drummond." 
The  forethought  of  Lawrence  had  caused  Bacon  to  be 
secretly  buried,  so  that  "  his  bones  were  never  found  to 
be  exposed  on  a  gibbet,  as  was  purposed." 


552  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER       The  first  news  of  these  disturbances  arriving  in  En- 

XV 

glandj  cut  short  the  promised  charter  just  as  it  was 
1676.  ready  to  pass  the  seals.  Instead  of  that  charter,  very 
Oct.  10.  liberally  drawn,  a  short  patent  was  substituted,  relating 
chiefly  to  the  judicial  powers  of  the  counoil,  and  the  se- 
curity of  land  titles,  but  without  any  mention  of  the  As- 
sembly, which  was  thus  left  to  depend  for  its  existence 
on  the  royal  instructions.  A  royal  proclamation  of  the 
same  date  authorized  the  governor  to  offer  pardon  to  all 
who  should  repent  and  return  to  their  obedience,  Bacon 
only  excepted.  Letters  were  presently  directed  to  Lord 
Baltimore  and  the  Duke  of  York  to  seize  Bacon,  should 
he  retire  to  their  provinces,  and  send  him  back  prisoner 
to  Virginia. 

As  soon  as  the  means  could  be  mustered — for  the 
king's  exchequer  was  always  low — three  commissioners, 
Sir  Herbert  Jeffreys,  appointed  lieutenant  governor  of 
the  colony,  Francis  Moryson,  late  one  of  the  colonial 
agents,  and  Sir  John  Berry,  were  dispatched  to  Virgin- 
ia, and  with  them  a  regiment  of  regular  soldiers  under 
Berry's  command.  They  carried  out  a  royal  proclama- 
tion, offering  pardon  to  all,  Bacon  only  excepted,  who 
should  submit  within  twenty  days  after  its  publication ; 
also  instructions  to  the  governor  to  declare  all  laws  of 
the  late  Assembly  void,  and  to  call  a  new  one,  for  mem- 
bers of  which  only  freeholders  were  to  be  allowed  to 
vote.  The  Assembly  henceforth  was  to  meet  only  once 
in  two  years,  and,  unless  for  special  cause,  was  not  to 
remain  in  session  more  than  a  fortnight ;  the  wages  of 
the  members  to  be  so  reduced  as  not  to  be  a  burden  to 
the  country.  These  latter  provisions  were  intended  by 
the  king  in  redress  of  grievances  complained  of  by  the 
tax-payers. 

"  God  Almighty  hath  been  inexpressibly  merciful  to 


VIRGINIA  UNDER    CHARLES   II.  553 

this  poor  province !"  so  wrote  Berkeley  to  his  lieutenant  CHAPTER 

Beverley,  giving  an  account  of  Drummond's  arrest  and __ 

execution.     But  the  hard-hearted  old  governor  was  him-  1677. 
self  implacable.      His   house   in  Jamestown  had  been  Jan-  2L 
burned ;  his  plantation  at  Green  Spring  plundered.    His 
pride  had  been  touched  by  resistance  to  his  authority, 
and  his  avarice  by  the  loss  of  his  property.     The  com- 
missioners, on  their  arrival,  found  the  governor  by  no  Jan.  29. 
means  satisfied  with  the  seventeen  condemnations  and 
fourteen  executions  already  had  by  martial  law.     Of 
those  condemned,  one  had  died  before  execution,  and 
two  had  escaped.     Instead  of  publishing  the  king's  proc- 
lamation of  pardon,  the  governor  issued  one  of  his  own,  Feb.  10. 
containing  many  exceptions  besides  Bacon. 

Trials  before  the  governor  and  council  by  "juries  of 
life  and  death"  were  now  substituted  for  courts  mar- 
tial, but  the  prisoners  gained  very  little  by  the  change. 
Bland  was  one  of  the  first  victims.  He  pleaded  the 
king's  pardon  in  the  governor's  pocket,  but  without 
avail.  "It  so  happened,"  say  the  commissioners,  "  that 
none  did  escape  being  found  guilty,  condemned,  and 
hanged,  that  did  put  themselves  on  trial."  "  We  also 
observed  some  of  the  royal  party  that  sat  on  the  bench 
with  us  to  be  so  forward  in  impeaching,  accusing,  and 
reviling  the  prisoners  at  the  bar  with  that  inveteracy  as 
if  they  had  been  the  worst  of  witnesses  rather  than  jus- 
tices of  the  commission,  both  accusing  and  condemning 
at  the  same  time.  This  severe  way  of  proceeding  being 
represented  to  the  Assembly,  they  voted  an  address  to 
the  governor  that  he  would  desist  from  any  further  san- 
guinary punishments,  for  none  could  tell  when  or  where 
it  would  terminate.  So  the  governor  was  prevailed  on 
to  hold  his  hand,  after  hanging  twenty-three,  eight  of 
which  we  sat  at  the  trial  and  condemnation  of,  and  ad- 


554  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  vised  that  they  should  be  executed  in  their  own  conn- 

XV 

'      ties,  under  small  guards,  to  try  the  temper  of  the  people, 
1677.  which  proved  all  peaceable."     The  executions,  it  is  said, 
exceeded  the  number  of  all  slain  on  both  sides  during 
the  war. 

Though  executions  were  suspended,  trials  still  went 
on.  A  great  many,  without  trial  at  all,  were  subjected 
to  heavy  fines,  payable  sometimes  in  tobacco,  and  some- 
times in  pork  for  the  use  of  his  majesty's  soldiers. 
Some  had  their  whole  estates  taken  from  them.  Oth- 
ers were  banished,  their  property  being  forfeited  except 
enough  to  pay  their  passage  out  of  the  country.  Others 
were  sentenced  to  ask  pardon  on  their  knees,  and  to  beg 
their  lives  with  a  rope  about  their  necks.  In  some  cases, 
through  connivance  of  the  magistrates,  a  "  small  tape," 
or  "  Manchester  binding,"  appears  to  have  been  used ; 
but  this  lenity  was  denounced  by  the  council  as  a  high 
contempt  of  their  authority.  Some  of  the  fines  were 
laid  to  the  governor's  use.  Such  was  the  certainty  of 
conviction,  "  there  was  not  a  man  but  would  much  rath- 
er acquiesce  to  have  any  fine  laid  upon  him  before  he 
would  venture  to  stand  his  trial."  "  So  that  at  last," 
say  the  commissioners,  "  this  was  the  question  to  crimi- 
nals— Will  you  stand  your  trial,  or  be  fined  and  sentenc- 
ed as  the  court  shall  think  fit  ?" 

The  commissioners  complained  of  these  arbitrary  fines 
as  in  conflict  with  the  king's  proclamation,  which  par- 
doned all  or  nothing,  and  as  "  a  most  apparent  contra- 
diction to  the  laws  of  England,"  which  forbade  the  seiz- 
ing of  any  man's  estate  without  lawful  trial.  They  call- 
ed the  attention  of  the  governor  to  an  opinion  of  "  the 
learned  Lord  Coke"  positively  against  any  such  proceed- 
ings ;  but  he  gave  little  heed  to  it,  appealing  to  the 
king,  the  Privy  Council,  and  the  learned  judges  of  the 


VIRGINIA  UNDER  CHARLES  II. 


555 


law.      The  commissioners  then  insisted  that  the  forfeit-  CHAPTER 

XV 

ed    estates   should   be    appraised   and   inventoried,   and L_ 

bonds  taken  from  the  parties  in  possession,  none  to  be  1677. 
dispossessed  till  his  majesty's  pleasure  should  be  known. 
The  first  precedent  of  this  sort  had  indeed  been  estab- 
lished by  Berkeley  himself,  in  granting  the  petition  of 
the  widow  Bacon,  to  enjoy,  under  these  conditions,  the 
estate  of  her  late  husband. 

Toward  the  .widow  of  Drummond  Berkeley  was  much 
less  gracious.  Drummond's  small  plantation  was  seized 
to  the  governor's  own  use,  and  the  widow  driven  from 
it,  with  her  five  small  children,  to  wander  and  starve 
in  the  woods.  But  Sarah  Drummond  knew  how  to  de- 
fend herself.  She  petitioned  the  king  in  council  to  be 
put  on  the  same  footing  with  the  other  widows ;  and  pres- 
ently, after  Berkeley's  death,  she  brought  a  suit  against 
the  Lady  Berkeley,  to  recover  the  value  of  a  crop  she 
had  appropriated ;  and  in  both  cases  successfully. 

The  women,  indeed,  seem  to  have  taken  an  active 
part  in  this  affair.  The  wife  of  Cheaseman  has  been 
already  mentioned.  Sarah  Grindon,  "  the  wife  and  late 
attorney  of  Thomas  Grindon,"  was  specially  excepted  as 
"  a  great  encourager  and  assister  in  the  late  horrid  re- 
bellion," out  of  an  act  of  indemnity  and  free  pardon  pres- 
ently passed. 

This  indemnity  and  pardon  were,  however,  very  lim- 
ited. All  those  already  executed  or  banished,  together 
with  several  others  who  had  escaped,  were  specially  ex- 
cepted from  it,  as  were  twenty-four  other  persons  by 
name,  except  as  to  the  punishment  of  death  ;  several  of 
whom  were  disposed  of  in  a  separate  act  of  pains  and 
penalties.  Nor  was  this  pardon  to  extend  to  servants,  or 
to  such  as  had  plundered  any  Loyalists,  or  destroyed  their 
cattle  or  burned  their  houses.  Even  to  this  slight  con- 


556  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  cession  the  governor  would  not  consent  without  an  act 
of  attainder,  including  all  whom  he  had  executed  by 
1  677.  martial  law,  and  such  as  had  escaped  by  death  or  flight. 
By  another  act,  all  who  had  held  any  command  during 
the  rebellion,  or  had  been  eminent  in  aiding,  assisting, 
or  encouraging  it,  except  such  as  by  a  timely  return  to 
duty  assisted  in  its  suppression,  were  disqualified  to  hold 
any  office,  civil  or  military,  except  the  offices  of  constable 
and  surveyor  of  highways — a  disqualification  specially 
extended  to  Ingram,  Walklett,  and  all  who  were  in  arms 
when  West  Point  surrendered.  To  presume  to  speak, 
write,  or  publish  any  thing  tending  to  rebellion,  or  in 
favor  of  the  late  rebels,  exposed  to  heavy  fines  and  stand- 
ing in  the  pillory ;  the  third  offense  to  be  punished  as 
treason.  If  the  culprit  were  a  married  woman,  and  no 
one  volunteered  to  pay  her  fine,  she  was  "to  be  whipped 
on  the  bare  back  with  twenty  lashes  for  the  first  offense," 
and  thirty  for  the  second.  Similar  penalties  were  im- 
posed for  speaking  disrespectfully  of  any  in  authority. 
Yet  necessary  reforms  were  not  wholly  omitted.  It  was 
provided  by  the  same  act,  that  any  justice  of  the  peace 
so  drunk  on  court  days  as  to  be  adjudged  by  his  fellows 
incapable  of  performing  his  duties,  should  be  fined,  and 
for  the  third  offense  should  lose  his  commission.  Min- 
isters "  notoriously  scandalous  by  drunkenness,  swear- 
ing, fornication,  or  other  heinous  and  crying  sins,"  were 
to  forfeit  for  the  first  and  second  offenses  half  a  year's 
salary,  and  for  the  third  offense  their  cures.  Several 
laws  of  the  late  Assembly  for  the  correction  of  official 
abuses  were  re-enacted  almost  in  terms.  The  act  against 
tippling  houses  was  somewhat  relaxed ;  but  all  ordina- 
ries must  be  licensed,  the  rate  of  charges  was  fixed, 
and  only  two  were  to  be  allowed  in  each  county.  Of 
those  active  in  the  late  commotions,  Bacon,  Ingram, 


VIRGINIA   UNDER   CHARLES    II. 


557 


and  Bland  had  been  recent  comers.      That  circumstance,  CHAPTER 

xv 
probably,  prompted  a  law,  that  no  person  not  born  in  ______ 

the  colony,  "unless  commissioned  by  his  most  sacred  1677. 
majesty,"  should  hold  any  office  till  after  a  three  years' 
residence.  Convicts  in  England  and  elsewhere  were 
forever  disqualified  to  hold  any  office.  The  Assembly 
closed  their  labors  by  directing  the  courts  of  law  to  be 
reopened,  and  appointing  the  fourth  day  of  May  and  the 
twenty-second  of  August,  the  one  as  a  solemn  fast  for 
manifold  sins,  the  other  as  a  thanksgiving  for  recent  great 
mercies. 

The  inhabitants  being  called  on  to  send  in  their  griev- 
ances, the  royal  commissioners  were  soon  overwhelmed 
with  complaints.  It  was  apparent  that  on  several  points 
they  did  not  approve  the  governor's  proceedings.  He 
hastened  to  England  to  justify  his  conduct,  leaving  the 
government  in  the  hands  of  Jeffreys.  April  27, 

The  report  of  the  commissioners,  carried  to  England 
by  Moryson  and  Berry,  was  denounced  by  the  governor's 
friends  as  a  "  scandalous  libel  and  invective"  against 
both  the  governor  and  the  "  royal  party"  in  Virginia. 
Sir  William  Berkeley  was  taken  sick  shortly  after  his 
arrival  in  England,  and  died  without  ever  having  seen 
the  king.  A  report  was  whispered  about  in  Virginia, 
said  to  have  been  derived  from  one  of  the  governor's  at- 
tendants, that  his  death  was  hastened  by  hearing  that 
the  king  had  said  of  him,  "That  old  fool  has  hanged 
more  men  in  that  naked  country  than  I  did  here  in  En- 
gland for  the  murder  of  my  father."  But  according  to 
another  account,  he  was  graciously  consoled  on  his  death- 
bed by  royal  inquiries  after  his  health.  It  is  certain, 
however,  that  Lord  Berkeley  reproached  the  commission- 
ers with  having  caused  his  brother's  death.  The  late 
governor,  having  no  children,  left  all  his  property  to  his 


558  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  wife,  the  Lady  Frances,  who  presently  intermarried  with 
XV'      Philip  Ludwell. 

1677.  The  Indian  war,  the  immediate  cause  of  all  the  late 
disturbances,  seems  to  have  subsided  so  soon  as  expe- 
ditions against  the  Indians  were  dropped.  Before  the 
departure  of  his  brother  commissioners,  Jeffreys  easily  ef- 
fected a  peace  with  the  nearer  tribes,  in  which  even  the 
more  remote  ones  soon  desired  to  be  included.  A  new 
Oct.  Assembly,  called  by  Jeffreys,  re-established  the  Indian 
trade  upon  a  new  footing.  It  was  to  be  free  to  all,  but 
was  limited  to  semi-annual  fairs  at  certain  fixed  places. 
The  same  Assembly  declared  the  year  1676  out  of 
the  statute  of  limitations  ;  regulated  suits  and  composi- 
tions for  injuries  done  and  property  plundered  during  the 
late  insurrection,  and  prohibited  the  use  of  provoking 
language  on  either  side,  tending  to  prevent  the  restora- 
tion of  the  colony  to  "  its  former  estate  of  love  and 
friendship."  They  ventured,  also,  to  remonstrate  against 
some  late  proceedings  of  the  royal  commissioners  in  forc- 
ing their  clerk,  Beverley,  to  deliver  up  the  records  of  the 
Assembly,  which  "  they  did  take  to  be  a  violation  of 
their  privileges,  for  which  they  desired  satisfaction." 
But  the  king,  so  far  from  giving  it,  presently  directed 

1681.  this  resolution  to  be  "  rased  out  of  the  books,"  and  a  bill 
to  be  brought  in  "  declaring  the  right  of  his  majesty  and 
his  officers  to  call  for  all  the  public  records  and  journ- 
als whenever  they  shall  think  it  necessary  for  his  royal 
service." 

While  Beverley  thus  put  himself  out  of  favor  with 
the  new  authorities,  Ludwell  was  provoked  by  Jeffreys's 
refusal  to  allow  him  to  proceed  at  law  against  Walklett 
for  damages  done  to  his  property  during  the  rebellion,  it 
being  Jeffreys's  opinion  that  Walklett  was  guaranteed 
against  any  such  proceedings  by  the  terms  of  his  sur- 


VIRGINIA  UNDER  CHARLES  II.  559 

render.     Thereupon  he  indulged  his  tongue,  unrestrained  CHAPTER 

by  the  late  acts,  in  very  free  comments  on  the  governor 1_ 

"  He  was  a  worse  rebel  than  Bacon  ;"   "  he  was  perjured  1677. 
in  interrupting  the  course  of  justice ;"   "  he  was  not 
worth  a  groat  in  England ;"   "if  every  pitiful  little  fel- 
low with  a  periwig  that  came  out  as  governor  was  to 
undertake  to  make  laws,  there  was  an  end  of  all  secu- 
rity."    Ludwell  was  prosecuted,  found  guilty  by  a  jury, 
and  the  whole  proceedings  transmitted  to  the  king  in 
council  for  advice,  as  to  the  proper  punishment.      Lud- 
well appealed  to  the  Assembly,  as  had  been  usual ;  but, 
instead  of  allowing  the  appeal,  it  was  transmitted  along 
with  the  other  proceedings.      The  result  appeared  some 
years  after,  in  a  royal  order  prohibiting  appeals  to  the  1683. 
Assembly  ;   and  that  body  thus  lost  forever  the  judicial  May  23t 
authority  it  had  hitherto  exercised. 

Upon  the  death  of  Jeffreys,  Sir  Henry  Chicheley  pro-  1678. 
duced  his  old  commission  as  deputy  governor,  in  which     •Dec< 
capacity  he  was  acknowledged  by  the  council.     He  pres- 
ently called  an  Assembly,  when  measures  were  taken,  1679. 
very  similar  to  those  originally  recommended  by  Berke-    APri1 
ley,  to  guard  the  frontiers,  which  still  continued  to  suffer 
by  the  depredations  of  stranger  Indians,  war  and  hunt- 
ing parties  of  the  Five  Nations,  and  other  tribes  under 
their  control.      Forts  were  established  on  the  Potomac, 
the  Rappahannoc,  the  Mattapony,  and  the  James  River 
above  the  falls  ;  and,  to  provide  garrisons  for  them,  every 
forty  tithables  throughout  the  colony  were  to  furnish 
and  support  a  man  and  horse  completely  provided  with 
arms   and  accouterments.     The  law  subjecting  Indian 
captives  to  slavery  was  still  retained.      An  attempt  was 
also  made  to  strengthen  the  frontier  by  grants  of  land 
for  the  establishment  of  military  villages  on  the  upper 
courses  of  the  Rappahannoc  and  the  James,  two  hund- 


560  HiSTORY^OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  red  and  fifty  able  men  to  settle  in  each  village,  and  to 
be  always  ready  to  repel  the  Indians.      It  does  not  ap- 

1679.  pear,  however,  that  this  scheme  was  ever  carried  into 
effect.     The  poverty  of  the  colony,  occasioned  by  the 
declining  price  of  tobacco,  soon  caused  the  garrisons  to  be 
reduced  to  twenty  men  each.     By  a  "  declaratory  order" 
of  this  Assembly,  all  patents  of  lands  extended  to  low- 
water  mark,  and  carried  with  them  an  exclusive  right 
of  fishing. 

Along  with  the  joint  grant  of  Virginia  to  Culpepper 
and  Arlington,  a  commission  also  as  governor  for  life,  to 
take  effect  whenever  Berkeley  vacated  the  office,  had 
been  given  to  Culpepper.  That  nobleman  had  become 
possessed  of  the  entire  grant  by  the  release  of  Arling- 
ton's share,  and,  after  many  delays,  and  repeated  hints 
from  the  king,  he  proceeded  at  last  to  Virginia,  and  was 

1680.  sworn  into  office.     He  carried  with  him — what  the  royal 
y'     commissioners  had  recommended,  with  an  assurance  to 

the  king  that  the  Virginians  would  never  do  it  of  them- 
selves— an  act  of  general  pardon  and  oblivion  under  the 
great  seal,  intended  to  bring  to  a  final  conclusion  the 
disorders,  discontents,  and  dissensions  growing  out  of 
Bacon's  rebellion.  That  act,  which  passed  the  Assem- 
bly unanimously,  remitted  all  forfeitures  in  consequence 
of  the  rebellion,  except  as  to  the  estates  of  Bacon,  Bland, 
Lawrence,  and  seven  others  ;  but  disqualification  to  hold 
office  still  attached  to  Ingram,  Walklett,  and  three  oth- 
ers. Any  new  suits  for  damages  done  were  prohibited 
except  for  the  recovery  of  specific  articles  of  property 
belonging  to  Royalists.  Indented  servants  engaged  in 
the  rebellion  were  to  suffer  no  other  penalty  except  the 
loss  of  their  time  for  eight  months  and  a  half,  to  be  add- 
ed to  their  respective  periods  of  servitude. 

Another  act,  also  under  the  great  seal,  gave  to  the 


VIRGINIA   UNDER   CHARLES   II. 


561 


governor  the  power  of  granting  letters  of  naturalization.  CHAPTER 
A  third  revised  and  confirmed  the  acts  imposing  export        V' 
and  tonnage  duties,  adding  a  duty  of  sixpence  a  head  1680. 
upon  all  persons  arriving  in  the  colony.     But  the  bur- 
gesses insisted  upon  continuing  the  exemption  from  ton- 
nage duties  hitherto  granted  to  Virginia  vessels. 

One  John  Buckner  having  brought  a  printing  press 
to  Virginia,  presently  printed  the  laws  of  this  session,  1682 
for  which  he  was  called  to  account  by  Culpepper  and 
his  council,  and  obliged  to  give  bonds  to  print  nothing 
more  till  his  majesty's  pleasure  should  be  known.  That 
pleasure,  as  signified  in  the  royal  instructions  of  the  next 
year,  positively  forbade  the  allowance  of  any  printing 
press  in  the  colony. 

The  regiment  of  soldiers  sent  out  with  the  king's 
commissioners,  instead  of  being  placed  in  garrison  on  the 
frontiers,  had  been  quartered  on  the  inhabitants,  who 
complained  grievously  of  the  burden.  The  troops  them- 
selves had  suffered  greatly  by  sickness.  After  repeated 
representations  and  complaints  from  the  lieutenant  gov- 
ernor and  council,  orders  for  disbanding  and  money  for 
paying  them  finally  arrived. 

The  price  of  tobacco  had  fallen  to  a  penny  a  pound. 
The  colonists  were  not  able  to  buy  common  necessaries. 
Thus  pressed,  recourse  was  again  had  to  new  schemes 
for  building  up  towns  and  promoting  trade  and  manu- 
factures. The  late  Assembly,  by  a  law  called  the  «  Co- 
habitation Act,"  had  directed  that  fifty  acres  of  land, 
conveniently  situated,  be  purchased  by  each  county,  and 
laid  out  for  a  town  and  store-houses ;  all  tobacco  and 
other  exportable  goods  to  be  carried  to  those  towns  for 
sale  and  shipment,  and  all  imported  goods,  "English 
servants,  negroes,  and  other  slaves,"  to  be  there  exclu- 
sively landed  and  sold.  Penalties  had  been  annexed  to 
I.  NN 


562  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  violations  of  this  law,  and  prosecutions  were  commenced 

XV 

'      against  those  who  disregarded  it.     But,  upon  the  remon- 
1680.  strance  of  the  English  merchants  trading  to  Virginia, 
to  whom  it  proved  very  inconvenient,  its  execution  was 
suspended  by  order  in  council. 

The  old  project  of  a  "stint,"  or  "  cessation"  in  the 
planting  of  tobacco,  was  also  revived.  The  inhabit- 
ants of  several  counties  signed  a  petition  to  the  govern- 
or to  call  a  special  session  of  Assembly  for  that  purpose. 
Alarmed  at  symptoms  which  seemed  to  portend  a  new 
rebellion,  without  consulting  his  council  he  granted  the 
1682.  request.  The  Assembly  met,  but,  after  vehement  de- 
April  is.  bateS?  proceeded  no  further  than  to  petition  the  king  to 
order  a  stint,  not  in  Virginia  only,  but  in  Maryland  and 
Carolina  also,  the  importation  of  whose  tobacco  into  Vir- 
ginia had  lately  been  prohibited  by  statute.  The  dis- 
appointed planters  assembled  tumultuously  in  the  peti- 
tioning counties,  and  cut  up  the  tobacco  plants.  The 
actors  in  this  affair  being  u  inconsiderable  people,"  pro- 
ceedings against  them  were  suspended  for  the  present, 
in  hopes  of  fixing  the  offense  on  persons  of  more  conse- 
quence. 

Notwithstanding  Beverley's  services  as  Berkeley's 
lieutenant  in  suppressing  the  insurrection  of  Bacon,  his 
jealous  custody  of  the  records  of  the  House  of  Burgess- 
es, and  his  refusal  to  submit  them  to  the  inspection  of 
the  king's  commissioners,  had  given  great  offense.  A 
royal  letter  had  suggested  to  the  council  the  propriety 
of  visiting  all  concerned  in  that  business  with  special 
"  marks  of  the  king's  displeasure."  With  the  object 
apparently  of  compelling  the  Assembly  to  choose  anoth- 
lay.  er  clerk,  Beverley  was  arrested  on  the  charge  of  stir- 
ring up  informations  under  the  Cohabitation  Act,  setting 
on  foot  petitions  for  an  Assembly,  and  giving  assurances 


VIRGINIA  UNDER  CHARLES  II. 

of  a  cessation,  whereby  he  had  provoked  the  people  to  CHAPTER 
riot.     On  these  vague  accusations  he  was  kept  a  pris-      XV' 
oner,  his  discharge  on  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus  being  re-  1682. 
fused,  that  point  being  referred  to  the  king.     Next  he    Nov 
was  accused  of  interfering  with  the  business  of  the  sec- 
retary, in  opening  a  letter  containing  writs  for  the  elec- 
tion of  burgesses.     But  this  he  insisted  had  been  done  by 
the  governor's  special  order.     At  last,  upon  an  informa- 
tion of  the  attorney  general,  he  was  found  guilty  of  high 
misdemeanors,  or,  rather,  he  confessed  himself  guilty,  1684. 
and  compounded  matters  by  asking  pardon  on  his  bended    Ma?- 
knees.      The  next  Assembly  evinced  their  sympathy  by 
again  choosing  him  their  olerk. 

Meanwhile  prosecutions  against  the  plant-cutters  pro- 
ceeded. Under  advice  from  England,  several  of  them 
were  found  guilty  and  executed  for  treason,  which,  by 
a  declaratory  act  of  Assembly,  was  pronounced  to  be  April, 
committed  by  all  who  assembled  to  the  number  of  eight 
or  more,  to  cut  up  or  destroy  tobacco  plants  or  any 
other  crop. 

The  slave  code  during  Culpepper's  administration  re- 
ceived some  additions.  Slaves  were  prohibited  to  carry  1682, 
arms,  offensive  or  defensive,  or  to  go  off  the  plantations 
of  their  masters  without  a  written  pass,  or  to  lift  hand 
against  a  Christian  even  in  self-defense.  Runaways 
who  refused  to  be  apprehended  might  be  lawfully  killed. 
The  condition  of  slavery  was  imposed  upon  all  servants, 
whether  negroes,  Moors,  mulattoes,  or  Indians,  brought 
into  the  colony  by  sea  or  land,  whether  converted  to 
Christianity  or  not,  provided  they  were  not  of  Christian 
parentage  or  country,  or  Turks  or  Moors  in  amity  with 
his  majesty.  An  unsuccessful  attempt  was  made  in  the 
council,  whether  dictated  by  humanity,  by  policy,  or  by 
a  wish  to  promote  the  interests  of  the  Royal  African 


564  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  Company,  to  re-enact  the  old  law  prohibiting  the  enslave- 
'         ment  of  Indians.     The  evils  of  the  slave  system  were 
1682.  already  felt.      Culpepper  refers,  in  an  official  report,  to 
"the  buying  of  blacks"  as  having  "exceedingly  contrib- 
uted" to  the  over-production  of  tobacco. 

Though  Culpepper  had  obtained  from  the  Assembly  a 
salary  of  ^£2000,  $8000,  besides  presents  and  perqui- 
sites, he  seems  to  have  had  little  relish  for  a  banishment 
to  Virginia,  whence  he  twice  returned  without  leave. 
On  his  return  the  second  time,  convicted  by  a  jury  of 
receiving  presents  from  the  Assembly  contrary  to  his 
orders,  he  was  deprived  of  his  office  by  a  legal  process, 
and  he  soon  found  it  expedient  also  to  surrender  his  pat- 
ent, receiving  therefor  a  pension  of  ^£600.  Virginia 
thus  restored  to  the  crown,  Lord  Howard  of  Effingham 

1684.  was  sent  out  as  governor,  with  a  frigate  to  enforce  the 
navigation  acts. 

It  was  by  an  Assembly  which  he  called  that  the  al- 
ready mentioned  act  against  plant-cutters  was  passed. 
April.  The  public  revenue  was  aided  by  a  tax  of  threepence 
per  gallon  upon  all  liquors  imported,  except  from  En- 
gland. Additional  measures  were  also  taken  for  frontier 
defense,  in  furtherance  of  which  Effingham  presently 
visited  Albany,  and,  with  the  assistance  of  Dongan,  gov- 
ernor of  New  York,  negotiated  a  treaty  with  the  Five 
Nations,  which  put  a  stop  to  the  depredations  on  the 
frontier,  under  which,  for  several  years  past,  Virginia 
had  suffered. 

1685.  A  new  Assembly  was  presently  called;  but,  instead  of 
)ct.     proceeding  to  business,  the  members  "  spent  their  time 

in  frivolous  and  unnecessary  debates" — at  least  such 
was  the  judgment  of  James  II.  on  their  conduct — "pre- 
suming so  far  as  to  ra'ise  contests  touching  the  governor's 
negative  voice."  This  behavior  the  king  was  pleased  to 


VIRGINIA  UNDER  JAMES  II. 


565 


ascribe  not  only  to  a  disposition  to  protract  the  session,  CHAPTER 

and  thereby  to  increase  their  wages,  but  also  to  the  in- \ 

fluence  of  Beverley,  whom  they  had  elected  as  their  1685 
clerk,  and  whom  the  king  now  declared  incapable  of  any 
office  or  public  employment  in  Virginia,  and  ordered  to 
be  prosecuted,  if  the  governor  found  cause,  "  according 
to  the  utmost  rigor  of  the  law,  for  altering  the  records 
of  the  Assembly."  The  governor's  conduct  in  prorogu- 
ing the  Assembly  was  approved ;  he  was  ordered  to 
dissolve  it ;  and  henceforward  to  assume  to  himself  au- 
thority to  appoint  a  fit  person  to  execute  the  office  of 
clerk  of  the  House  of  Burgesses.  Nor  did  the  House  re- 
gain the  appointment  of  its  clerk  till  the  reign  of  Queen 
Anne. 

Previous  to  the  arrival  of  this  order,  the  Assembly,  at 
an  adjourned  session,  had  passed  an  act,  by  which  debts  1686. 
contracted  in  Maryland  and  Carolina  were  first  made  re-     Oct 
coverable  in  the  Virginia  courts. 

Effingham,  like  his  predecessor,  was  greedy  for  mon- 
ey.     All  probates  of  wills  were  required  to  be  sealed, 
and,  for  the  use  of  his  seal,  the  governor  demanded  a  fee 
of  two  hundred  pounds  of  tobacco.      A  new  fee  of  thirty 
pounds  of  tobacco  was  demanded  by  the  secretary  for 
recording  grants  of  land.     It  was  partly,  perhaps,  this 
same  desire  of  fees  which  led  to  the  establishment  of  1687. 
a  Court  of  Chancery,  of  which  the  governor   claimed,  Oct  27 
by  virtue  of  his  office,  to  be  sole  judge,  with  the  as- 
sistance, however,  of  such  counselors  as  he  chose  to  con- 
sult.     In  conformity  with  the  policy  adopted  by  James 
II.  not  less  in  America  than  in  Europe,  Ludweli  and 
Custis  were  displaced  from  the  council  to  make  room  for  1686. 
two  papists. 

An  act  of  Lord  Culpepper's  first  Assembly,  reciting 
"  that  all  courts  in  this  country  are  many  times  hindered 


556  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  and  troubled  in  their  judicial  proceedings  by  the  impert- 
ineiit  discourses  of  many  busy  and  ignorant  men,  who 

1687.  will  pretend  to  assist  their  friend  in  his  business,  and  to 
clear  the  matter  more   plainly  to  the  court,   although 
never   desired   nor   requested  thereunto  by  the   person 
whom  they  pretend  to  assist,  and  many  times  to  the  de- 
struction of  his  cause,  and  the  great  trouble  and  hinder- 
ance  of  the  court,"  had,  for  prevention  of  these  evils,  pro- 
hibited any  person  to  appear  in  any  court  as  attorney 
without  first  obtaining  a  license  from  the  governor.    This 
act,  being  found  "  inconvenient,"  was  repealed  by  the 
next  Assembly.     But  the  repealing  act  was  itself  repeal- 
ed by  royal  proclamation,  whereupon  Effingham  claimed 
that  the  first  act  revived,  and  would  allow  no  attorneys 
to  practice  without  his  license. 

The  planters  of  Virginia  were  not  a  little  alarmed  at 
an  excise  duty  imposed  in  England  on  tobacco — the 
commencement  of  a  system,  since  carried  so  far  in  that 
country.  They  attempted  to  retaliate  by  acts  for  the  en- 
couragement of  domestic  manufactures.  But  these  acts 
were  disallowed  by  the  king  in  council,  as  hostile  to  En- 
glish interests. 

The  increase  of  discontents  in  the  colony  was  evinced 
not  only  by  many  prosecutions  for  seditious  words,  but 

1688.  in  the  conduct  of  a  new  Assembly,  presently  called,  of 
April.    wnose  derk,  conformably  to  his  recent  orders,  Effingham 

assumed  the  appointment.  That  Assembly  was  soon  dis- 
solved without  passing  any  acts,  and  Effingham  pro- 
ceeded to  England,  followed  by  Philip  Ludwell,  sent  by 
the  Assembly  to  complain  of  his  conduct.  Upon  Effing- 
ham's  departure,  Nathaniel  Bacon,  president  of  the  coun- 
cil, succeeded  to  the  temporary  administration. 
1662.  For  some  years  after  young  Calvert's  accession  as 
governor,  things  in  Maryland  went  on  happily.  Some 


MARYLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.       557 

misunderstandings  had  occurred  with  the  Indians,  but  CHAPTER 

xv 
they  were  quieted  without  much  difficulty.      Meanwhile  ' 

the  settlements  gradually  extended.  New  Nether  land  1664. 
having  been  taken  possession  of  by  the  English,  Lord 
Baltimore  claimed,  under  his  charter,  to  carry  his  juris- 
diction to  the  shores  of  the  Delaware ;  but  he  found  the 
Duke  of  York's  officers  no  less  obstinate  upon  that  point 
than  their  Dutch  predecessors.  The  navigation  act  hav- 
ing cut  off  the  revenue  formerly  derived  from  the  impost 
ori  tobacco  exported  in  Dutch  vessels,  to  supply  this  de- 
ficiency, the  example  of  Virginia  was  presently  imitated,  1671. 
by  the  imposition  of  two  shillings  per  hogshead  upon  all 
tobacco  exported,  one  half  toward  the  colonial  expenses, 
and  the  other  half  as  a  personal  revenue  to  the  proprie- 
tary, who  agreed,  on  his  part,  to  accept  his  •  quit-rents 
and  all  fines  due  on  the  transfer  of  estates  in  tobacco  at 
twopence  per  pound — a  price  somewhat  beyond  the  cur- 
rent rates.  In  Maryland  as  in  Virginia,  tobacco  con- 
stituted the  only  staple,  and  both  provinces  felt  alike  the 
inconvenience  of  over-production.  Yet  the  Maryland 
planters,  not  content  with  white  servants,  were  anxious 
to  stock  their  plantations  with  slaves.  An  act  was  pass- 
ed, and  subsequently  renewed,  for  encouraging  the  im- 
portation of  negroes,  which  had  almost  ceased  since  the 
cessation  of  trade  with  the  Dutch. 

Prudence,  caution,  and  moderation  had  made  Lord 
Baltimore  by  far  the  most  successful  of  all  those  adven- 
turers who  had  attempted  proprietary  colonies  in  America. 
In  return  for  his  heavy  outlays,  he  began,  in  his  old  age, 
to  receive  a  considerable  income,  including  fines,  quit- 
rents,  the  tonnage  duty,  and  half  the  export  duty.  At 
his  death  the  province  had  ten  counties,  five  on  either  1676. 
shore  of  the  Chesapeake,  with  perhaps  sixteen  thousand 
inhabitants,  of  whom  far  the  larger  part  weje  Protest- 


568  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  ants.    No  considerable  number  of  Catholic  immigrants  ap- 
'     pears  to  have  arrived  subsequently  to  the  first  migration. 

1676.  As  one  consequence  of  the  system  introduced  by  Lord 
Baltimore,  and  of  the  act  of  toleration  still  in  force,  Mary- 
land had  no  religious  establishment,  and  no  division  into 
parishes.  There  were  three  or  four  Episcopal  clergy- 
men, who  lived  on  their  own  plantations,  and  received 
the  voluntary  contributions  of  those  who  attended  their 
services ;  but  they  had  no  glebes,  no  parsonages,  no 
tithes ;  and  their  discontent  was  plaintively  expressed  in 
a  letter  from  one  of  their  number  to  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury.  "  The  priests  are  provided  for ;  the  Quakers 
take  care  of  those  who  are  speakers ;  but  no  care  is  taken 
to  build  up  churches  in  the  Protestant  religion !"  The 
colony  is  represented,  in  consequence,  as  a  "  Sodom  of 
uncleanness  and  a  pest-house  of  iniquity."  The  testi- 
mony of  those  who  magnify  the  necessity  for  their  own 
services  is  always  to  be  received  with  some  caution. 
There  is  no  reason,  in  fact,  to  suppose  that  the  morals 
of  Maryland  were  at  all  worse  than  those  of  Virginia, 
though  that  latter  colony  did  enjoy  the  advantage  of  a 
Church  of  England  establishment. 

The  new  proprietary  of  Maryland,  shortly  after  his 
father's  death,  leaving   Thomas   Notley  as  his  deputy 

1678.  governor,  went  to  England  to  look  after  his  property 
there.  Soon  after  his  arrival,  he  was  called  to  account, 
on  the  score  of  the  ecclesiastical  destitution  of  his  prov- 
ince, by  the  Bishop  of  London,  to  whose  diocese  the  over- 
sight of  the  colonies  was  deemed  a  sort  of  appendage. 
The  bishop  was  seconded  by  the  king  and  his  ministers, 
anxious  to  compound  for  lives  of  utter  and  notorious 
profligacy  by  professing  a  great  devotion  to  the  estab- 
lished religion.  Lord  Baltimore  alleged  the  impossibility 
of  any  public  ecclesiastical  establishment  in  a  province 


MARYLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.        559 

of  such  various  religious  creeds ;  but  this  explanation  was  CHAPTER 
hardly  deemed  satisfactory.  . 

At  the  period  of  Baltimore's  visit  to  England,  that  1678. 
country  was  violently  agitated  by  a  struggle  to  exclude 
the  Duke  of  York  from  succession  to  the  throne,  on  the 
ground  that  he  was  a  professed  papist.  This  exclusion 
was  zealously  advocated  by  the  representatives  of  the  old 
Parliamentarians,  who  had  begun  again  to  act,  under 
Shaftesbury's  lead,  as  an  organized  party,  and  whom  the 
popular  delusion  of  the  famous  popish  plot  had  greatly 
strengthened.  On  the  other  hand,  the  representatives 
of  the  old  Royalists  supported  the  claims  of  the  duke, 
though  they  disavowed  popery  almost  as  strongly  as  their 
rivals.  It  was  now  that  the  party  names  of  Whig  and 
Tory  first  came  into  use.  Whig,  the  Scotch  for  sour 
milk,  and  the  appellation  of  the  rebel  Covenanters  of  the 
west  of  Scotland,  was  applied,  by  way  of  ridicule,  to 
the  enemies  of  the  duke ;  while  his  friends,  in  their 
turn,  were  stigmatized  as  Tories,  the  name  originally  of 
certain  wild  bands  of  Irish  popish  robbers. 

This  great  party  struggle  in  England,  coupled  with 
the  recent  insurrectionary  movements  in  Virginia  under 
Bacon  and  others,  was  not  without  influence  on  the 
ultra-Protestants  of  Maryland.  Headed  by  Fendal,  the 
former  governor,  a  man  well  experienced  in  civil  com- 
motions, they  began  to  call  in  question  the  authority  of 
a  papal  proprietor.  Lord  Baltimore  hastened  his  return 
to  the  province,  and  was  able  to  triumph  over  this  old 
agitator.  Fendal  was  arrested,  tried,  found  guilty  of  168J 
sedition,  and  banished. 

Charles  II.,  after  a  most  violent  struggle,  triumphed 
also,  by  the  help  of  the  Tory,  or  High  Church  party, 
over  the  enemies  of  the  Duke  of  York.  Shaftesbury, 
their  leader,  found  himself  obliged  to  retire  to  Holland. 


570  HISTORY    OF    THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  Anxious  to  establish  his  own  Protestantism  in  the  eyes 

XV 

of  the  nation — for  it  was  very  much  doubted,  and  not 
1681.  without  reason—— the  king  sent  orders  to  Lord  Baltimore 
to  allow  none  but  Protestants  to  hold  office  in  Mary- 
land. But  the  proprietary  did  not  see  fit  to  comply  with 
orders  for  which  there  was  no  warrant  in  the  Maryland 
charter.  He  allowed,  however,  to  his  Protestant  sub- 
jects, as,  indeed,  he  always  had  done,  what  he  considered 
their  fair  share  of  public  trusts. 

The  attempt  in  Maryland  to  prevent  the  intermar- 
riage of  whites  and  blacks  seems  not  to  have  proved 
very  successful.  The  preamble  to  a  new  act  on  this 
subject  recites  that  such  matches  were  often  brought 
about  by  the  "  instigation,  procurement,  or  connivance 
of  the  master  or  mistress,"  who  thus  availed  them- 
selves of  the  provisions  of  the  former  law  to  prolong  the 
servitude  of  their  female  servants,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  to  raise  up  a  new  brood  of  slaves.  To  remedy  this 
evil,  all  white  female  servants  intermarrying  with  negro 
slaves  were  declared  free  at  once,  and  their  children  also  ; 
but  the  minister  celebrating  the  marriage,  and  the  mas- 
ter or  mistress  promoting  or  conniving  at  it,  were  sub- 
jected to  a  fine  of  ten  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco. 
This  law  is  said  to  have  been  passed  by  the  procure- 
ment of  Lord  Baltimore,  and  for  the  special  bene-fit  of 
one  Eleanor  Butler,  known  as  "  Irish  Nell,"  who  had 
returned  with  him  from  England,  and  had  intermarried 
with  a  negro  slave.  But  how  bootless  are  laws  for  the 
protection  of  the  ignorant  and  helpless !  The  children 
of  this  very  Irish  Nell  were  held  as  slaves ;  and  when, 
near  a  century  afterward,  in  1770,  her  grandchildren 
sued  for  their  liberty,  the  provincial  court  held  that,  al- 
though Nell's  children  had  all  been  born  after  the  act 
was  repealed,  yet,  as  her  marriage  preceded  that  repeal, 


MARYLAND  UNDER  CHARLES  II.       571 

her  issue  and  their  descendants  remained  subject  to  the  CHAPTER 
penalties  of  the  act,  and  were  rightly  held  as  slaves.          ' 
(See   Butler  v.    Boardman,   1    Harris    and   M'Henry's  1681. 
Maryland    Reports,    371.)       The   great-grandchildren 
tried  again  in  1787  with  better  success,  being  all  set 
free  by  the  Court  of  Appeals  (2  Harris  and  M'Henry, 
214),  on  the  ground  that  so  heavy  a  penalty  as  the 
servitude  of  one's  children  could  never  attach  except  the 
facts  on  which  it  was  founded  had  first  been  established 
in  a  court  of  record  ;  and  as  no  conviction,  in  the  case 
of  Irish  Nell,  of  intermarriage  with  a  negro  could  be  pro- 
duced, therefore  her  posterity  were  entitled  to  freedom. 

Lord  Baltimore,  while  governor  during  his  father's 
life,  and  his  deputies  since,  had  acted  as  collector  of  the 
parliamentary  intercolonial  customs  upon  "  enumerated 
articles."  A  new  collector,  appointed  from  England, 
was  perhaps  more  strict  than  his  predecessors.  At  all 
events,  Baltimore  soon  quarreled  with  him,  and  com- 
plained to  the  king.  But  the  collector  was  sustained  in 
England,  and  Charles  II.  claimed  of  Lord  Baltimore  a  1682. 
considerable  sum  for  alleged  obstructions  to  his  revenue. 
The  collector,  who  was  very  obnoxious  in  the  province, 
was  presently  killed  in  a  quarrel  with  one  of  the  coun-  1684. 
selors.  His  successor,  four  or  five  years  after,  died  also 
a  violent  death.  Neither  Lord  Baltimore  nor  the  Mary- 
land planters  were  at  all  zealous  to  assist  in  carrying  the 
acts  of  trade  into  effect,  or  scrupulous  about  evading  im- 
positions which  they  considered  oppressive  and  unjust. 

The  policy  of  -Virginia  was  imitated  by  Maryland  in 
the  enactment  of  laws  for  establishing  towns,  all  of 
which,  however,  proved  failures,  except  one  on  the  Sev- 
ern, afterward  called  Annapolis,  and  subsequently  the 
seat  of  government.  Attempts  were  also  made  to  en- 
courage domestic  manufactures,  but  they  had  little  sue- 


572  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  cess,  and  were  presently  complained  of  by  the  jealous  En- 

'  glish  merchants  as  interferences  with  their  trade. 
1685.  The  accession  of  James  II.,  professed  Catholic  though 
he  was,  proved  by  no  means  so  very  favorable  to  the 
Catholic  proprietor  of  Maryland.  The  Quaker  Penn 
was  much  more  in  favor  with  that  papist  king.  In  the 
controversy  between  him  and  Lord  Baltimore  as  to 
bounds,  the  proprietor  of  Maryland  found  himself  obliged 
to  relinquish,  as  we  shall  see  in  a  subsequent  chapter, 
half  the  peninsula  between  the  Chesapeake  and  the 
Delaware,  besides  a  wide  strip  along  the  northern  limit 
of  his  province.  Nor  was  even  the  charter  of  Maryland 
*  safe.  It  shared  the  common  danger  of  other  charters 
at  that  time,  and,  in  spite  of  Lord  Baltimore's  remon- 
strances and  entreaties,  a  writ  of  Quo  Warranto  issued 

1688.  against  it.     Baltimore  hastened  to  England  to  defend  his 
.   rights,  but  before  a  decision  was  arrived  at  the  process 

1689.  was  arrested  by  the  dethronement  of  James. 


END   OF    VOL.   I. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  Lnr      *' 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  SANTA  CRUZ 


This  book  is  due  on  the  last  DATE  stamped  below. 


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